"You Look Surprised to See Me"

im sorry to hear this happened to your husband, shes lucky she didnt do it to my husband, cause he dont take **** from a man or a woman, but i am glad your's was able to contain himself. and i absolutely agree with your statement about getting mad at people calling Mexican's lazy. My HUSBAND IS MEXICAN, and he is the hardest worker that I have ever met in my lifetime. He works with some of the laziest sorriest guys, and they are NOT mexicans. so, just thought i would put my two cents in. have a good day.

Thank you ((bipolarmom))

I worry about his heart - hypertension and high cholesterol. His father died young. He tries his best to hold it all in with a smile when he's on the job and fighting traffic. He tries his best to blow off a little steam before he comes home, but he usually comes straight home. Because I worry about his heart exploding, I want him to be able to release a little of that frustration and unwind before getting up to do it again. If explosions have to occur, I'd rather it come out of his mouth than through his chest or the top of his head. He's my lifeline. He doesn't have any time to make those heart-healthy choices for himself, ask "Calgon" to take him away, join a health club, or bury himself in a good novel.

Hang in there. If our husbands ever run into each other on the street, I hope it's at a good time. If they do, good or bad, it would be interesting for the four of us to meet over a big Mexican breakfast afterwards.

I'm going to decline the challenge, thank you. I don't know anything about your relatives in Arizona and don't feel inspired to associate icons with them.

Neither. That was my impression of the artist(s) who designed the "lump" series of icons.

I think I do have an icon that would work for my reaction to him:

((((((((((((((KathyM))))))))))))))))))))))

Fool Zero

I had to read your post again, and it was even funnier the second time around. I sooooooo appreciate your input because something else was troubling me......

My husband was under a woman's desk, working on the phone system. He could hear all the ladies gossiping about him, speculating on who he was and whether or not he was safe. They were very well-dressed, beautiful and successful women.

One woman started in on "Latin Lovers," and gushed to her friends "You just HAAAAAAVE to have one." Her friends giggled and said "Shame on you, you're a civilized lady and upstanding member of your church....and MARRIED!!!

She burst out laughing and said "It doesn't count...they're MEXICANS! The ladies cracked up over that one and agreed they needed to find themselves a "Latin Lover."

I suspect this woman believes Mexicans can be used for ANYTHING as long as it's satisfying and gets results....regardless of the "mid evil" nature. Neither her husband nor God will mind because they are not human - they are just "blow-up dolls" and "lumps" on the side of the road. WOW

Again....thank you soooooooo much. That one REALLY bugged me.

In Phoenix, in particular, the Hispanic heritage IS one of celebration. I am well aware of the other side of the coin as I worked in civil rights enforcement for 11 years. Trust me, I've seen the ugly. Because I am a blonde anglo, I've heard the slurs, the bigotry, the epithets of disparaging terminology coming from people who are totally clueless when it comes to the harm they do with the simplest comments.

I'm Latino so I can relate. As a Latino, one of the things I am grateful for is that we're such a loving culture. "El calor humano" is central to our being. Hopefully, all the love you and "abrazos" you are receiving from your friends here at PC will make up for "esa vieja estupida".

Thanks ((Vickie)) and ((Renovation))

Again, really confusing. My husband was born and bred in Phoenix. Why isn't he allowed to celebrate?

When he was a little boy, he dreamed of getting away from it all. He dreamed of moving to the Midwest because of all that green grass. He was absolutely certain no one fought in the midwest because they had beautiful shade trees. He was sure they were always nice and never grumpy. Yeah, uh huh, we all hold hands and sing Kumbaya all day long here in Chicago. Bless his heart. It's a shame he's not even good enough for the kind and peaceful folks of Chicago.

The REAL kicker is my son. He's half white/half black, but my husband adopted him.

We rushed our son to the VA hospital one day because we feared he may have developed another DVT and pulmonary embolism (same initial pain). He almost died on several occasions last spring. I was a nervous wreck, so we figured it would be best if I stayed home this time after the treatment we received when he really was dying last spring.

A man heard the name when they were registering, so he gave my son a nudge and spoke to him in Spanish. My son tried to be nice and said "Sorry dude, I don't speak Spanish."

The man screamed "You're denying your roots!" My son became angry and said "WTF are you talking about?" My husband calmed him down and got him to focus on answering the registration questions.

This "tough guy" really wanted to duke it out with my son. We were all thankful I wasn't in that Emergency Room. I would have GLADLY taken him on for insulting my in-laws.

I couldn't believe it when I read that bit about the "Latin Lover" I had a boyfriend from Mexico when I was in college, but I honestly can't say there was a huge dif, not that it got to that point... But those women , OMG!!!!! Unbelievable! And the family, Jeeeminy! No "Thank you for such a beautiful grandson, nephew, etc?" I know it's painful to have your family turn like that, but Kathy, I think you're well quit them. Bluntly put, but I think your son is perhaps better with the family he has now; you, your hubby, etc.
My MIL was rather that way about her son marrying an American. I have had to put up with the "uncultured," "undereducated", "Low class" jibes from her for a long time. It was just recently she found that she was so off base she started to turn green, but you know I DON**T CARE. If she can't abide the fact that one side of my family was working class and Irish, then basically, I have written her off. I will be civil to her because she is my husband's mother and I love him, but I will not have her turn face and start sucking up to me because my father's family turned out to be acceptable in her books. PLEASE!!! Such people will develop all sorts of bigotry to try to maintain their place at the top of the food chain. It can be aimed at everyone and everything, just so that people like her can keep up the feeling of being special. She won't change, and most of them don't, no matter how hard you try to educate them. my only comfort is knowing that the cat pounced at a small, moving thing hoping to torment a mouse and caught a tiger by the tail instead.

KathyM,

I can tell you for a fact that living in a large city, whether it's in Phoenix, or in the midwest (Kansas City, Chicago, St. Louis) is a lot different than living in a medium size city or smaller size city. There are communities that have lush green grass and friendly people, communities where people care about their neighbors and care less about how light or dark their skin is. But I can tell you Phoenix and Chicago aren't two of them. The community I spent most of my adult life in was in the middle of Kansas, was around 50k people and was exactly how you described it. I would move back there in a second.