Who do I still think I am??

This one's about sleepin' in and doin' work.

30DBC PROMPT: "It's Saturday! Did you get to sleep in? Make a few creative excuses for why you were able to sleep in this morning. If you didn't get to sleep in, what woke you up?"

What's up y'all? You read that prompt right...it's Saturday, for real. I suppose right now's as good a time as any to remind you if you're reading this before 2am Sunday on the east coast that the whole Daylight Savings Time thing goes into effect at that moment...what does that mean? It means we're gonna sacrifice an hour of sleep this evening/tomorrow morning, but we'll be that much closer to summer (and hopefully we can thaw out some). Just doin' my part to be helpful, ya know? Figured I'd get that outta the way early. Push the big hand on your clock ahead one number before you go to bed tonight, or do nothing if your time revolves around automatic World Clock updates on all your devices (Is the World Clock still a thing? It sounded like a big deal once the internet became mainstream, but I don't think anyone's referenced it since Y2K. Oh wait...I have the internet right in front of me! There's this website...http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/, but it doesn't list my favorite city, which sucks for personalization. Boo on your presentation, World Time website that's not like the World Time website I remember in the younger days of the information superhighway. Why am I destined to never be able to find things with my name on it, speaking of personalization? It's not my fault my first name's not marketable...all I wanted was a license plate for my bike that had my name on it that didn't come with peel-off stickers from the box of Honeycomb cereal when I was a kid. Boo on that too!).

Wow...I think I just set a new personal world record for "Fastest Off-Topic Rant (Multiple Off-Topics Division)" in my short and painful long and storied blogging history. My man The Six Year Old Me is impressed...aren't ya, buddy?

He's smilin'.

So anyway, yeah, I slept in today, but I've got some good excuses. I've slept in nearly every day for the last three weeks because of the whole stupid ankle thing and not being able to work. I'm gonna be screwed come Monday and I have to be out of the house by 8:45am at the latest when I go back to CAPCO. The hour of Daylight Savings Time is gonna work against me too come Sunday night, when I know I won't be ready for sleep early enough to comfortably take my sleeping meds, get my eight hours, and feel well enough to get out of bed come the morning. But that's my problem, not yours. You're only here to know what my real (fake) excuses for sleeping in are, so without further ado, here they are (in no particular made-up order):

I've stayed up for four nights straight, doing a shot of cranberry-flavored Red Bull every hour on the hour.

One word: waitress.

I had problems falling asleep because some idiot's music was too loud...then I realized it was my music.

It only looks like I slept in because all of my clocks are on Ukrainian time while I mediate the conflict between them and Russia via Skype and BestVinesLOL.com and Snapchat.

Andre The Blog Monkey got into my peanut butter stash again while I was trying to sleep, and I had to clean up after him because you're not supposed to wake up to a messy place or else the terrorists win.

Everyone, no matter what their situation, deserves a good night's sleep (or day's, if you're nocturnal like that) and at least one solid attempt at laying in bed for as long as you possibly can without the disruptive forces of work, children, or pea-sized bladders. I hope your morning was good to you.

BCF PROMPT: "National Working Women's Day: Many women feel that being a stay at home Mom is a full time job. Do you agree or disagree? How do you feel about Dad being the one that stays at home instead? Do you agree or disagree it should be whichever parent has the best opportunity to make it work?"

First off, to paraphrase comedian Chris Rock, good for you if you're a woman that works, 'cuz that's what people are supposed to do (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0B_ekSrsEk). I realize that's a terrible thing to say or even imply, and the video clip uses all sorts of colorful language to illustrate the stupid comparison I was going for, but this is one of those "everybody gets a trophy for participating" days when it really should be a "why aren't we a little more appreciative of this on the daily?" kind of day. I don't get a "National Eat A Whole Bag Of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Day", but that doesn't negate my struggle. I know somebody's gotta feel that.

It's also a situation that's more of an indictment of the day and age we're in now as opposed to what we knew growing up. It's not as common anymore for there to be a stay-at-home parent, and in many cases even to maintain a middle class, no frills lifestyle both mommy and daddy should have decent jobs that pay more than just hugs and kisses and fingerpainted portraits that get hung on the fridge. I'm not trying to minimalize anybody's position within the family structure here, and I'm not pretending like kids can/should raise themselves...I know better than that.

Then there's that whole "it takes a village to raise a child" thing too (http://www.ask.com/question/poem-it-takes-a-village-to-raise-a-child), and it's true...parents can't do it all on their own, even if they have the means to. Community and extended family need to fill in the gaps and pick up the slack when necessary...it's on all of us to be good citizens, because you never know when a child's paying attention and learning something from you whether you're a parent or not.

It's easy for me to say and all, because I don't have kids...but I was a kid once, so I do have a little frame of reference on the topic. The onus doesn't fall on one parent or the other, or both of them. Holding down a job doesn't make you a bad parent, just as staying home all day doesn't ensure you'll be a good parent either...every week the news is filled with too many examples of how not to raise a kid, yet there's never enough stories about the people who are doin' it right. And why is that? Because that's what you're supposed to do, even if it's damn near impossible on a constant level. No matter how horrible the hand you're dealt in life is, you have to remember somebody's got it worse...you can barely feed three kids? Someone's tryin' to feed four. Same with clothes and homework. And too many folks seem to want to make it all a competition instead of playin' together for the same team, fighting to achieve the same things.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

It's the first Soundtracker Saturday! I love it! If you were sleepin' in during the month of February, you missed a bunch of us droppin' songs in the key of life (random Stevie Wonder reference alert) during "The Soundtrack of Your Life" ...it was so great that lizco252 turned us into a group, and here we are, back with another activity.

I'm trying to keep with the themes offered in the prompts for the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  and the "Blogging Circle of Friends " , while putting a bit of a biographical spin on the music, but it's not always easy because maybe one or two lines in a song fit one prompt, yet the rest of the song or the idea behind it fits nicely with the other prompt. Like this one by Ghostface Killah and Mary J. Blige, "All That I Got Is You" (album: Ironman {link:http://www.amazon.com/Ironman-Ghostface-Killah/dp/B00000K0T8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394331961&sr=8-1&keywords=Ghostface+Killah+Ironman}; lyrics: http://rapgenius.com/Ghostface-killah-all-that-i-got-is-you-lyrics)...for the one humorous line about sleeping, the rest of the lyrics tell the story of a single mom trying to raise a family through difficult times, which is something I can relate to. The situation I'm familiar with may not have been as extreme, but there are subtle similarities...and being able to look back upon those days and come through with a different sort of respect is a blessing.

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

So it's pretty common knowledge (I think) that Facebook tracks every website you go on while you're logged in because they want to show you certain advertisements...and that's what makes this funny: I've been getting hit with ads for Ancestry.com, with a headline that reads "Who do you think you are?" Thanks Facebook...the team here at "Who do I still think I am??"  is on its second blog working nightly in an effort to figure that out.

Here is a one-minute instructional video (including cool time-lapse technology!) on how to properly overcome any problems or issues involving Daylight Savings Time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqXe7-CX1AM.

And just in case you missed my 6-comment legendary post last year regarding Daylight Savings Time (complete with an appearance from Foul Bachelor Frog!!), I'll rerun the linkfest it was in this here spot now for your reading convenience whenever you deem it to be appropriate: "This one's about education." .

From the irony department: I probably shouldn't have made any off-color references about women working, or anyone working for that matter, considering I haven't been medically able to work full-time in a over a year and a half. My bad there, and I apologize for any misunderstandings that may occur because I know how things can get taken out of context and/or misinterpreted. I also have a tendency to sometimes dig myself a deeper hole when trying to explain my...ummm, self, so I'll shut up now.

Well, I think it's late enough for me to think about trying to cross over into the medicated world soon, so I can get back to that more normal sleep cycle people seem to enjoy so much that they do it on a regular basis. Peace, spring forward and fall back, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!