Secrets of a Shoplifter

So at my job, my favorite thing above everything else is catching shoplifters. As horrible as that sounds there's something extremely therapeutic about it. I don't know what it is, maybe the adrenaline? Maybe teaching a young teen that they're not "all that." But every time after I catch one I feel like I can take on the world.

Accept for my last one.

I thought it was just another "routine" shoplifting incident. Another minor with a friend making a bad judgment call. But no, I learned something that day.

Everything seemed routine until the parents of the friends showed up. They were furious, a quarrel broke out. The parents were upset that the girl that was caught was blaming it on their daughter. (Which I know that the friend did asked her to shoplift the item for her) Ingenious? Manipulative? Yes. And I quickly found out why.

The parents! Yes the parents. They were pro's at manipulation, and taught their daughter the way. These well-to-do, upper class parents didn't care that their daughter convinced her friend to shoplift for her, they didn't care that their daughter was so cunning and able to manipulate her friend into doing her dirty work for her, they were just mad that "accusations" were being made, and wanted to make sure that there was no way their daughter would be legally involved.

Hate that. Hate watching manipulation spread from generation to generation. I hate that parents can teach their kids these things. Like how in this case, its okay to steal as long as someone else gets caught for it and you seem innocent.

Its learning stuff like this that makes me not feel the adrenaline and ability to take on the world that I usually do. I wish I could take on all ignorant, narcissistic parents out there.. but I can't. I'm not even a parent yet.

Delayed Post

Nolan and I forgot to post some pictures of our trip to Portland. We had so much fun. We were able to see most of Nolan's family which we don't always get to see.



Ironically we chose the one day that the beach was disgusting. Not fun.
So we went to Historic Fort Stevens instead.



And Nolan got to practice shooting some really big guns.


We also went to frog lake while we were there. Which actually had tons of frogs! That was probably my favorite part because I have a soft spot for small animals. I must have caught almost 50. I'm pretty much a frog catching pro.




This is the whole frog catching crew (besides Kim and Grand Dad) right before we went home with our new pet frogs which we let go in Nolan's parents garden. Hopefully no PETA members are reading this.

All in all our trip was a success. We were so glad that we were able to see all the family and have such a great time!

In Response

As we all know the major topic of discussion these days is on socializing health care. I recently read this post from Keegan (this is where I'd put that link that would take you to his blog but I don't know how to do that) about his initial issues and opinions on what socializing health care in America would mean. In response to his blog I'd like to share my background and why I am in favor of changing our health care system in America.

As many of you know I was born in The Netherlands which you could say has some sort of socialized health care (technically it's not but let me explain). In The Netherlands they have a dual system (and to warn you I had to look up some info on wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt) in which government health care is required for everyone for serious and permanent health conditions. With that however, most citizens still have the right to have an obligatory (privatized) health insurance that covers basic health care needs.

Now I didn't realize how fortunate I was until I was married and we had to try to fend for ourselves. I don't know many young families that can afford our private health insurance here in America. It was shocking to find out that many of my married peers didn't have any type of health coverage. Scary thought especially considering many of them bringing children into the world with no means of providing for them. How is it that young, tax paying, law abiding citizens(for the most part) who go to a government funded state university cannot afford the peace of mind knowing that you'll be taken care of no matter what comes your way.

When Nolan and I started shopping around for health insurance, we realized that at this point in our lives all we needed was something that would provide for us in case a tragic event or serious condition came up. Honestly we thought we might have to go into debt just to pay for basic catastrophic health insurance. How outrageous is that? Why would I have to go into debt or pay ridiculous costs to insure that nothing serious happens to me? I personally have the mentality (and if you know mine and my families health history you'll know why) that you can never underestimate the importance of health insurance. No matter what, no matter how healthy you try to live your life, something will always come up and to not have health insurance would be devastating. Luckily with my parents help and the fact that I still have dual citizenship I can be taken care of.

Obviously you can see how I am such a fan of this system. Like in The Netherlands and many other European countries our health care system doesn't have to be a scary, purely, socialized system. I would prefer that our country goes for a more dual system because it's still providing basic rights to everyone while still allowing a bit of room for some capitalism (which heaven forbid America can't be America if there's no capitalism).

So there you go Keegan and for those random other few who must be bored out of their mind to read my super exciting and extreme view on this topic. Hopefully I didn't sound too ignorant. I'm always afraid to speak my mind because I hate ignorance and don't ever want to be like that.

Dats ony in da mownin'

There are a few things that just brighten up my day like steak, phone calls, Nolan and Bubb Rubb. I was recently reminded of this youtube clip, and I just wanted to share with you. Sorry if you've already seen this.

Future?