5 Things that Fired Me Up
If y’all couldn’t tell, sometimes I get fired up. Reasonably fired up, to be fair, but fired up all the same. Victoria’s Ramblings is meant to be a place where you can always expect a polished, endearing version of myself.
But sometimes the feisty Southern woman inside me, bless her heart, needs a place to romp.
Sometimes, to be honest, I’m not so endearing. Sometimes I do get riled up and, like any self-respecting Amurikan, I want to speak my mind. Also, this past week week I was called “cute” by about 85 different people, so I’m in rare form.
With that preface, I bring you 5 Things that Fired Me Up.
1) Evriholder Slipper Genie found at Wal*Mart. When I saw this product on our local Wal*Mart shelf, I had a minor conniption. (As if shopping at Wal*Mart in the first place wasn’t enough to throw a woman over the edge.) Seriously, people? We’re officially too lazy to sweep our floors? We’d rather walk around with a shag carpet on our feet and hope that gets the job done? Why not make gloves out of Velcro to pick up dust? Body suits with magnets to pick up toys? Smh.
2) Instructions on microwave dinners. Dutifully, I was reading the instructions on my Lean Cuisine microwave dinner. One step, number 5 I think, caused me to laugh out loud. The instruction read, “use food thermometer to ensure product has cooked thoroughly.” Seriously? I only have 5 minutes to throw dinner together and you expect me to use a food thermometer? If I’m eating TV dinners, you can pretty much bet I don’t even own a food thermometer. Just saying.
3) Leggings as Pants. You may be a cutie patootie, but no one else wants to see your patootie.
4) (Most) Christian radio stations. Remember, this is my monthly space to rant! I am a Christian and I love Jesus. I grew up listening to Adventures in Odyssey and cherished every Whit’s End moment. As I’ve grown a bit older, and admittedly more cynical, I can’t quite come to terms with our mainstream understanding of ‘Christian radio’. First, I can’t really reconcile the term ‘Christian radio’. The word Christian is used to describe people who claim Christ (Acts 11:26). Did you catch that? People. Jesus didn’t die for the sins of airwaves, musical notes, or broadcasts. He died for people. And, yes, people can redeem airwaves, musical notes, and broadcasts for the sake of Christ – which leads
me to my second beef with Christian radio stations. If you’re going to produce a ‘Christian radio’ program, please give your listeners substance! I can’t believe some of the things mainstream Christian radio broadcasters will say! A ‘Verse of the Day’ that isn’t even a whole Bible verse or, worse, is a whole Bible verse that has been seriously ripped out of context. Feel-good stories about puppies finding their forever families. Contests that don’t really make sense. Music that isn’t really that good. (Sorry, it’s true.) Many Christian radio stations and shows aren’t this despairing, some are quite good, but most make me cringe. Please Christian radio broadcasters, for all our sakes, if you truly want to redeem radio for the cause of Christ seriously think about what you’re saying, feature Jesus-loving artists that produce amazing art, and stop telling me heartwarming stories about puppies. Your sister in Christ, Victoria.
And, on a more serious note:
5) Media coverage of the Boston Marathon explosions. The Boston Marathon explosions were a horrible tragedy. 
I feel for the victims and their families. I deeply respect the first responders and authorities who have been tirelessly working to manage the crisis. As hard as it can be, I pray for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother. While I completely understand the desire to know why this attack happened, our major news outlets needed to take a chill pill. (An NPR discussion on the topic I heard actually agreed with me on this one, so I feel quite vindicated.) As events unfolded the week of April 15th, I thought the Boston Police Commissioner and FBI Director were extraordinarily patient listening to the same questions, and giving the same answers, in multiple press conferences. While the story was developing, police constantly told the public they didn’t know what happened and they were feverishly working on finding solutions. If the media could just stop their incessant questioning for five minuets, maybe these guys could get back to work and get those answers they were demanding. The problem with 24 hour news stations is that news isn’t always developing how we’d like every 24 hours. Sometimes we need to remember that patience is a virtue.
What about you? Do you get fired up? What would your list be?
Love you witty take on things, you wise beyond your years.
Thanks so much Julie 🙂 But, to be honest, sometimes I certainly *don’t* act wise beyond my years! As the old song goes, “He’s still working on me.” As always thanks for reading!
Ha! Love this. If leggings were pants, do you know what they’d be called? Pants.
I couldn’t agree more with point #4. I grew up listening to Christian radio, but as soon as I got my own car I was done with it. Granted, I don’t listen to secular music stations (that’s actually only because my car radio doesn’t work).. but I don’t listen to Christian music exclusively and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Labeling something “Christian” nowadays seems to be the same label as “safe”.
I’m glad the post resonated with you! I would totally agree that ‘Christian’ is somehow a label that means ‘safe’ (which isn’t entirely a bad thing!) but I do think it’s tragic when ‘safe’ also equals ‘shallow’, you know? I don’t listen exclusively to Christian music and in a lot of ways I’ve found it easier to engage culture with the Gospel. “O you like that Mumford & Sons song, me too. Let’s chat about it.”
Thanks so much for reading and commenting, Sarah. I checked out your photography blog and love your work! I’ll certainly be a returning visitor.
The slipper thing is a genius idea! Come on!
Very funny, honey!
I think you should market the Body suits with magnets to pick up toys – GENIUS!
I mean something that picks up toys for you sounds perfect but remember- most toys are plastic. If you invent something that repels Legos from that tiny nook in your foot that they always manage to find, then we may be talking. I can never quite understand how something that is often less than an inch in size produces such a huge amount of pain.
Great point Kaela 🙂 And YES to Legos! My word! Those little torture devices!
Amen and amen!
The Christian radio station has irked me from the time I was old enough to have a preference in music. I mean, it’s fine if you want to play Amy Grant and Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith from the 80s, but DON’T call it “Today’s Christian Music” when the song was produced before I was born. Just don’t.
PS you ARE cute but you are also a sexy beast 😀
Toooooooootally agree with you on Michael W. Smith *not* being “Today’s Christian Music”! Gah! LOL I knew we were friends for a reason 🙂 Thanks for reading and commenting and such, as always.
(PS. You are what you eat…I didn’t remember eating a sexy beast this morning!)
From one cute gal to another, I guess 🙂
“Christian” radio also bugs me. The best one around here (as in, it plays the least shallow selection of music) doesn’t have live hosts or anything, but they do have something they broadcast every week called “God’s word of the week.” One week it will be “Miracle”, the next “Love”, etc. DRIVES ME NUTS!!!!!!! God’s Word of every week is THE BIBLE — READ IT!
Oh, and I totally want those slippers!
“God’s Word of every week is THE BIBLE – READ IT!”
That gets a hearty AMEN from me, Lauren! Thanks for reading, even if we disagree on the slippers 🙂 LOL Totally kidding!
I get fired up about prejudice of any kind. Most always root for the underdog.. People with health issuers who don’t take care of themselves and then expect health care givers to fix them makes me crazy. And I’m with you on the reporters asking stupid questions over and over. I kind of like the house shoe/sweeper idea though. Lol
Maybe I was too hard on the slipper mop, apparently it’s a big hit!
Prejudice, though, is certainly something to get fired up about! Thanks for commenting, Jo Ann.