Academy Awards Fashion Sanity Winners

In all the frenzy of fashion swirling around the Academy Awards, and the media spending way too much time covering haute couture, it was refreshing to see a couple of beautiful women who weren't pressured to succumb to promoting designers' fashions on the red carpet.

Photo by www.popsugar.com

Bradley Cooper already earns double points for bringing his mom as his date. But when Kristen Chenoweth asked Gloria who she was wearing, she answered, "Just something out of my closet." I just about fell off the couch with joy. And I learned she was wearing comfy tennis shoes under there, too. Finally, some sanity around that place. Gloria, you looked beautiful, and you're my kind of gal!

Photo by www.news.softpedia.com

Helen Hunt also looked gorgeous in her H&M off the rack dress. 

I can't imagine the pressure piled on the stars to seek physical perfection and/or to make no mistakes pertaining to the ever-changing, always subjective fashion trends. And that's coupled with the fear of being ripped apart for their fashion choices by the tabloids and the Joan Rios of the entertainment news (oxymoron?) shows. 

Descendants of the tailors from the Emperor's New Clothes are alive and well today. Fashion's goal is to make you think the perfectly good clothes you have in your closet this month are totally inadequate. And after you buy the latest fashions, they will tell you the same thing again next month. 

Don't buy into that never-ending merry-go-round. 

Storing & Rotating Water

For years I've wanted to get in the habit of storing extra water in case of a natural disaster or the occasional 'boil water' notices our community issues when the water supply has been contaminated for some reason. In years past when I kept gallons of water on hand, I never had a good system to make sure I was using up the oldest water first. But I finally came up with an easy method now that tells me at first glance the order in which I should use the gallons of water we keep on hand. And I don't have to lift and shift them around at all.

My father built shelves for storing the 24 gallons of water over our chest freezer in the garage, which is handy to load and unload right by my vehicle. If you notice, some of the jug handles are facing different directions.

The handles that are facing to the right, or farthest from my reach, are the newest jugs of water I've set on the shelves. We use about six or seven gallons a week for cooking and making tea, so when I go to the grocery store once a week, I only have to handle and fill up six gallons of water. We can get gallon refills from HEB for 20 cents a gallon. 

The handles that are facing forward are the next newest gallons of water. Every time I bring a new batch of water from the store, I turn the existing jug handles to the center or left, which is easy and quick to do.

The handles that are facing to the left are the oldest jugs of water, which I use before the others. It's a simple system and doesn't involve constantly moving the jugs to keep them in order from the oldest to the newest water. Voila! 

Stop in the name of the law

• Someone took something that didn't belong to them,  so a law was written prohibiting stealing. 
• Another person committed an assault on someone else, so laws were made to protect others from deliberate harm or death.
• Someone else went back on their word and reneged on an agreement, which started signed paper contracts to attempt to make agreements binding. 
• A student ran in the hall at school and collided with another student causing bodily harm, so the rule was birthed that banned running in the hall.
• Two of the earliest vehicles collided at an intersection, and somebody decided that traffic signs and rules would help keep people safe.
• Some individuals took it upon themselves to erase and correct answers on the TEAMS, TABS, TAAS, TAAKS tests to raise their campuses' accountability ratings, so TEA required all teachers, administrators, and paraprofessionals to sign multiple oaths at every stage of training and testing, hoping that would make everyone honest.
• Somebody took a gun into a school and shot somebody, so now attempts to ban guns are applied to everyone.
• Someone figured out they can steal others' creative works and sell them for their own profit, so laws were written to protect artists' livelihood.
• And multiply all of that by hundreds of thousands of laws to arrive at where we are today.

Law-writing began thousands of years ago... and you'd think we would have reached a saturation point, having enough laws to cover every conceivable abuse, but every year new laws are written for the next round of dishonesty and abuse that changes with the times.

"Today's Reforms are Tomorrow's Abuses"

I heard a New York Times journalist make that statement back in 1992 in San Antonio, Texas. I've forgotten the journalist's name, but his statement stuck with me all these years. Laws and ordinances and rules aren't necessarily written for the honest folks, they were written because someone abused a situation or a person. New laws are written for the changing technology as thieves figure out new ways to steal. Look how thick the stack of paper has become just to attempt to force people to keep their word. Compare that to not so many years ago when a handshake was enough to seal the deal. 

Most laws were written with good intentions for the general public's good, but too many laws can make criminals of us all. 

• Because somebody at some time was unsafe driving a certain speed limit, laws now limit everyone's driving to a certain speed limit, and now safe drivers can be fined for breaking that law.
• The IRS tax filing system has become so complicated, an honest error could mean breaking the tax law.
• City ordinances differ from town to town, and something as simple as posting garage sale signs on streets can bring a heap of trouble on an unsuspecting citizen attempting to make a little money. 
• Does missing signing one of those TAKS (and now STAAR) oaths on the correct day make someone a criminal if they sign it on the next day? Do those oaths actually make someone more honest?
• Is New York City actually going to fine businesses for selling soft drinks in cups deemed too large by the mayor? 
• A woman spilled hot coffee on her lap and successfully sued McDonald's for something that was her fault, which is only one example of winning the lottery by lawsuit abuse these days. 

We're to the point of fining people for stupidity or making unhealthy or unwise choices. 

And we're supposed to be living in a free country. 

God gave us only 10 Laws in the Old Testament:

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol.

3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.

4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

5. Honor your father and your mother.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet.

But in the New Testament, Jesus simplified the Law even further when someone asked Him what the greatest commandment was. He replied, 

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:36-40.

How would our lives change if we all were to live those two commandments? But even if we erased all the hundreds of thousands of laws and replaced them with these two, people will continue the abuses until these simple, but profound words are written on their hearts.