Voting, cool sounds like fun!

"American youth attributes much more importance to arriving at driver's license age than at voting age” Marshall McLuhan

I remember very well the first election I ever voted in. I was 19 years old, it was the year 2000. Bush was running against Gore and Nagan was the 3rd party candidate. I was so excited about getting to go vote. I watched every single debate, researched on all three candidates, and made an informed decesion on who to vote for. My vote went to Bush. I went in to the voting booth, I cast my vote, and when I walked out, I gave the 3 finger peace sign (making a "W") and my friend took my picture. It was all so exciting to me.

Every election since then has felt the exact same way.

However, it is very upsetting to me when I see that people today don['t care about their right to vote.

I was always raised that you have no right to complain about who has been elected to office if you didn't go vote. If you want your voice to be heard, then you have to go vote. Then you can gripe all you want. My mom use to tell me who I have a say in who runs my government. That was always exciting to me.

The day after I turned 18, I went to the court house and registered to vote. The lady who helped me was very impressed. She said how it was just a joy to see young people excited about voting. She commented that she hoped I lived the rest of my life that excited about voting.

So far, I have.

I still watch every debate. I still research all the candidates. I watch the polls. And I always vote.

This past Saturday was Gubanatorial election day in Louisiana. The past four years, we have had to deal with Gov. Kathleen Blanco (who by the way, I did not vote for 4 years ago. I voted for Jindal!) who0 has done a terrible job. She did horribly in regards to Katrina, and other than that, she just pissed a lot of people off with a lot of things she did. A few months ago, she announced that she was not going to run for the governor's mansion again, because she knew that she would not win, and she knew that she would be embarrassed. Can't say I'm terribly upset by that. Good ridance I say.

So, I wake up early Saturday morning, take my shower, get dressed, and go vote. Once again, I vote for Jindal. Then I do the rest of my chores for the day.

I wake up Sunday morning to find out the Jindal won the election, the first time in 40 years for the election to be one without having to have a run-off race. I am so happy.

Then I hear how many people came out to vote. See, there are 2,166,801 registered voters in Louisiana. Only 1,207,765 people came out to vote Saturday. That's basically just over half of the registared voters in Louisiana. To add to that, only 10% of the registared voters are under the age of 25. ONLY 10%!!!!!!!!! And only 65% of Louisianaians who are of legal voting age are acually registered.

What's the deal Louisiana. Do you not care about who runs your government? Do you not care that you have a voice. do you nat care about your rights?!!

I know I do.

So this is my pledge. I will work very hard in trying to get people I know to register to vote! only a year before presidental elections. I petition for all of you to do the same. Let's make a difference!

Jacey C. signing off!

Quotes everywhere!

So you have probably noticed that in my previous blogs, I have a quote that sort of matches what ever I am writing about that day. But I am a quote freak! (I guess that is the English major in me!) Therefore, I have decided that I need a "quote" blog. So here it is. Ten of my favorite quotes and how I feel they relate to me. I love feed back, so leave me a comment and let me know what you think, or which quote relates to you the most and why. I love to hear other peoples stories!

- "Only the gentle are ever really strong." James Dean

WOW! So here is the deal. I just got off the phone with a VERY dear friend. He was telling me how people are giving him a bad time because he is a "gentleman." (I put that word in quotations because gentleman are in rare form these days!) Now the thing is, he really is a gentleman. He respects woman probably more than anything else! to his mother, you raised a good man! But people are putting him down for this. Telling him that this makes him weak. No, it makes him a MAN! Any woman would be the luckiest woman on earth if they had this man because he treats woman like they are queens. This makes him one of the strongest and most respected men I know, only to be beat out by my own father who is the same way. Thank you, friend, and you know who you are, for being who you are! I wouldn't have you any other way!

- "It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone." Marilyn Monroe

In my life, I am happy to be a single woman. I enjoy not having the complications that come with relationships. However, there are times when all I want is to be with someone. To have someone to snuggle with at night. To have someone to sit on the couch and watch a movie with. to have someone who cares about me as if I am the only woman on earth. Unfortunately, the only men I have ever found are the kind of men who treat dogs better than they treat women. I want a man who looks at me the way my father STILL looks at my mother after 40 years of marriage, like she is the only woman in the room. Until I can find that man, I would much rather be "unhappy alone." I have been in the relationships where I have been unhappy, but only because someone else has made me that way. I don't want that. I want the relationship where I am in complete bliss when I am with that person, and completely miserable when I am away from them. I want Mr. Right, not Mr. Right Now!

- “God gave men both a penis and a brain, but unfortunately not enough blood supply to run both at the same time.” Robin Williams

Have you ever noticed that really sexy men are usually not that intelligent, and really intelligent men are usually not that sexy? Strange how that works. True, there are the rare ones that are both, but they are few and far between. I would love to find a man who I could hold an intelligent conversation with and also be able to have a little eye candy as well. However, it seems that this is not something that you can easily find. Also, I get tired of the sexy men who KNOW they are sexy. Cockiness is such a turn off! I would love to find a smart, intelligent man, with common sense, who is sexy and doesn't even realize it. Dream man, party of one, your table is with me!

- "The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there... and still on your feet." Stephen King

I use to think that I had to do something BIG to make my mark. I had to move to Nashville and get a recording contract. I had to be bigger than life by the tie my 10 year reunion got here. So I moved to Nashville to make this happen. What actually happened was I fell on hard times. I worked 3 or 4 jobs all while trying to sing and be heard. I met some wonderful people, and I met some people I wish I could forget. I was taken advantage of and ended up losing everything I had worked so hard to get. Then I came home. It was hard, almost like admitting defeat. But it was the best thing I could have ever done for myself. Now I am back in school and working at a job that I love. I am making my mark right her in Louisiana, and it feels just as good as it would have felt in Nashville, maybe even better.

- "A big part of who I am is just the way I was raised. Nobody is better than anyone else, and if you really work hard, you might get lucky and get what you want." Martina McBride

I feel so blessed to have a wonderful family. I have parents who have taught me to work hard for what I want, and that what goes around comes around. They loved me and both of my sisters equally yet separately. I have two sisters who are wonderful, even if we all get on each others nerves. I have five beautiful nephews who remind me everyday of what life is all about. It's about the simple things. It's about getting a flashlight in your stocking at Christmas and it being just what they always wanted. It's about getting a dollar and being so thankful for it that you give the biggest and best hug in the world. I'm so lucky to have the family I have.

- "What is it in us that makes us feel the need to keep pretending... we gotta let ourselves be." Christina Aguilera

Why are people so fake. They pretend to be you friend. The pretend they care about you. Why can't they just be themselves. It's like everyone has to pretend to be someone else for anyone to pay attention to them. I get so tired of thinking I have met someone, only to find out that they aren't who I thought they were.

- "No matter what a woman looks like, if she's confident, she's sexy." Paris Hilton

I've never tried to hide the fact that I am a big girl. I know I am, but I am fine with that. I am comfortable with who I am, and I also feel that if someone doesn't like the way I look, then they can look somewhere else. Why then do people still feel it's OK to say stuff like, "Oh my god, she's fat" and stupid things like that. I know I'm fat, and I'm sure anyone who looks at me can tell, so why make yourself look like a jack ass by saying it. Who cares if I'm fat. i don't. Well, I do, but not because I care about what other people think, but because it's unhealthy. I use to get so upset when people called me fat, now I don't care, it's doesn't matter to me. And once I realized that it didn't matter, I realized how happy I can truly be.

- "I think the thing to do is enjoy the ride while you're on it." Johnny Depp

We only get one chance at this life, only one! So why not take chances. I think that is why I moved to Nashville. I needed to take that chance. I needed to be true to myself. Was it easy, No. Did it hurt to leave my friends and family, Yes! Was it one of the best decisions I've ever made, Yes. do I regret it for a moment, No! You have to live life while you can, or you will turn around and it will be too late!

- "You can cry, ain't no shame in it." Will Smith

I've always been a VERY emotional person. My friends use to pick with me because I would cry during "Saved By The Bell". Why you might ask, because some of the episodes were sad! Anyways, I love being the emotional person I am. Sometimes I cry for no reason, but I let out emotion that way. I don't keep it bottled up. I feel like it makes me a stronger person.

- "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Bill Cosby

I use to think that I had to make everyone happy. Always do what everyone told me to do. They one day I woke up and I was a wreck. That's when I learned, you can't make everyone happy. It's impossible. now, I work on making me happy, and maybe a few select people, but mostly myself. Since I started focusing on me, my life is so much easier to manage!

Hope you liked to quotes I picked out! Let me know what you think!

Maybe being "that girl" has it's perks

"Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well." Josh Billings

I love how there is a famous quote that works for everything in life!

The other day I wrote about how I was sick of always being "that girl who sings." I went on and on about how I felt like I was labeled and no one ever saw me as just me. Then yesterday happened.

First let me give you a little bit of background. I work at a local university as a transient (temporary) worker. I also go to school here. What department I work in is not important, nor is the name of the university. I've been in this department for about 2 months now, maybe a little longer, and I really like it here. I was working 40 hours, but my hours were just cut down to 20. Sucks because I JUST bought a "new" car. (New to me that is!) Tjhis desision was not handed down from my direct supervisor, but from the head of the campus. So, I figure, he just doesn't like me or something.

Well, yesterday, he comes to my office and asks to speak with me. I figure, great, he's going to fire me. So I am trying to figure out what it is I have done to get fired as I begin to talk with him. This was how he started the conversation.

"First off, let me just tell you how talented you are." Great, a buffer. He's trying to ease the blow! then he continued, "We really need someone in here full time, and we just can't have a transient worker working full time. But I'm not going to leave you high and dry. I will personally find you somewhere on campus to work, it just may not be this office" Wow, he's personally going to work at finding me a new job. GREAT! But I really like my department.

So I tell him that I have been thinking about going and getting my civil service test so I can be a state employee ( which you have to be to work full time), and he said, great, then YOU can apply in here and you already know what you are doing!

Then he said, "Besides, someone who can sing the way you sing should be working here!"

So my voice may have gotten me a job, or kept this one at least!

So, maybe being "that girl" has it's perks.

Who knew!

I LOVE the Gays!

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." Mother Teresa

I don't know if I've ever seen words that were more true than these! It seems that there is so much judgement being passed around these days. People are judged on the clothes they wear, the car they drive, the job they have, the music they listen to, and everything else in their lives. People don't take time to get to know someone before they decided if they are even going to like them.

For example, right now I am in a play/musical that the university I work and go to school at is putting on. It is called "The Rocky Horror Show." I'm sure some of you have heard about it. Well, this past Friday night, myself and about 4 other cast members put on our costumes and went downtown Alexandria to hand out flyers at the "Art Walk" that was going on. I was working at one particular exhibit while the others were walking around. Close to the end of the night, a lady came to the exhibit I was working at. She looked at me and said "Oh you must be in Rocky, too." I told her I was and she proceeded to tell me how she had run into the other cast members earlier. "When I first saw them I was like, oh my, Goth People. I tired to avoid them, but they started talking to me. I was surprised that they were all really nice, then they told me they were in Rocky and I knew why they were dressed the way they were." (our costumes are very Gothic Lolita based designs, and they are HOTT!!!)

Now, what the lady didn't know was the people she had seen really are Gothic people, so what they were wearing is something you would find them in almost everyday! They were the first ones to have their costumes figured out because their closet was full of clothes that would work. I kind of wanted to tell her that, but I was frustrated with the entire conversation. She thought that because they looked Gothic, they were going to be mean people, when if fact, these three people were some of the sweetest people I've ever been privileged to know.

Then there are people who are judged for their sexual orientation. Let me be perfectly clear on this subject. My uncle was gay and passed away in 1990 from complications due to AIDS. I grew up with my mom working at the local AIDS Organization, Central Louisiana AIDS Support Services (better known as CLASS). A lot of her clients were gay, and so were a lot of her volunteers. Therefore, I grew up around homosexuals. Some of my VERY best friends are gay and lesbian, and they are also some of the most loyal friends I have ever had. I am a "Grace" (as in Will and Grace) or what people commonly refer to as a "fag hag" and I am DAMN proud of it! But when I see people being judged because of who they chose to love, it makes me sick! People don't take the time to get to know them, they just know they are gay, so they must be bad people, right? Wrong!

I'm judged everyday for being "fat". I'm fat so therefore I must be lazy and do nothing but eat and sit on the couch all day long, right? WRONG! I have been a big girl since as long as I can remember. I have Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) which means I have to eat every three hours. Is that an excuse, no, but does it help in my being over weight, yes! I also have Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome, commonly known as PCOS, which messes around with my hormones, making it harder to lose weight, and easier to gain it. I try to walk everyday, and I eat WAY more veggies than junk. I'm comfortable with who I am, but other people judge me before they even get to know me. This is not right people.

Now I am not trying to say that I don't judge people. Trust me, I am not perfect, no one is! I do try very hard to get to know someone before I decide if I like them or not. Doesn't mean I always do. In fact, I will put it out there right now, if you EVER see me judging someone I don't know, call me out on it.

So, let me leave you with one last thing. Before you judge that person next to you wearing all black, or with a rainbow bracelet on, or who is overweight, take a moment and try to imagine what their life is like before you decide if you like them or not. By having an open mind, you might just meet the most loyal friend you could ask for.

I'm not just "that girl"....

Ever felt like everyone was labeling you? Like you are known as "that girl" or "that guy" but never as YOU? I feel that way all the time. I am a singer, and not to toot my own horn, but "toot toot", I am good. I have won a national singing and performance competetion before. But I don't sing because I want to be the best, I sing because it is one of the few things that makes me truely happy.

I was very lucky growing up. I didn't have that "STAGE MOM", just a mom who wanted me to do whatever made me the happiest. If that was singing, then sing baby, but if it's something else, then do that! That made singing even more fun. But, through the years, I started feeling like I was just "that girl who sings".

In school, I was always made fun of because I was "fat!" (I am fat, but I'm happy and comfortable in my skin, so what does it matter?) I was tormented and because of that I hated my life. I was so depressed all the time. Then I was asked to sing in front of the school, and I rocked! After that, no one made fun of my any more. People were nice to me. By that point, I didn't care anymore. I realized how two faced people could be.

All the time people are calling me. People I don't even know. "Jacey, we need someone to sing. Jacey can you sing for us? Jacey please help us and sing a song this day." I've had enough!!

I'm not just a singer! I'm a sister, a daughter, an Aunt, a writer, an actress, a friend, and most importantly, a PERSON!!!! I don't just sing and go to bed, sing and go to bed, sing and go to bed! I have a life! GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!

And then, to make matters worse, when I tell people no, they try to make me feel bad and guily about it! Why should I feel guilty about it! I shouldn't be made to feel guilty about it because I did nothing wrong in telling you no!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE TO SING. It is my passion for life. But I love to do other things too. I love to spend time with my family. I love to go to the movies.

I see other people have the same thing happen to them. My mom works for the IET department at a university, and people from work see her in Wal-mart and ask her questions about their computers. My oldest sister is an accountant, and when people see her outside the office, they ask her questions about their taxes. My other sister works as a social worker in the healthcare field, and people are all the time asking her about Medicare!

WE ARE MORE THAN JUST "THOSE GIRLS!!!!!"

Every person has more to their identity that just one thing, but there is always one thing that seems to define a person.

I guess for me it is singing.

And I guess I will always be "that girl."

Oh Well. I guess my quote for the day will have to be "Beneath the make-up and behind the smile, I'm just a girl who wishes for the world" Marilyn Monroe