Sammelsurium or simply "Stuff" volume 5

If you have been following my blog, you will realize that I have something of an issue with the pyjama people. It's bad enough in Target or Wal-Mart but what I saw at the Hotel Monaco in Salt Lake was an all time low. As I was waiting to be seated in the hotel restaurant for breakfast, another guest came in. She was, like me,approximately 50 plus years old. What was she wearing you ask? Try a baggy sweatshirt over an equally baggy t-shirt with pajama pants and slippers. Is it really too much to ask that people dress appropriately in public?

A few days ago while we were still in Moab, Utah two Canadians from British Columbia stopped to look at the Earth Roamer and have a chat with us. At the end of the conversation one of the men asked me if I was one of "those Americans" that think they are better than everyone else from every other country. He said people in Utah don't seem that way but Americans from other parts of the US are more difficult. I have to be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to say except that I don't feel as an individual that I am better than anyone else. I'm not trying to upset anyone by recounting this. For me it is simply interesting to see how we are perceived by others - rightly or wrongly.

Something else that has also been surprising for me is the number of young people with tattoos over large areas of their bodies. Although I don't personally have a tattoo, I do have friends and family members who do and for me it isn't a problem. However just as the clothing I wore when I was 20 would look less than flattering now, won't that be the case with tattoos? I have seen people with both arms completely covered, their face and neck, their hands etc. I realize that tattoos of children's names, birth longitude and latitude etc are becoming the ultimate accessory but isn't the uniqueness of this type of "statement" being lost? Sometimes it seems as if in their quest to make a statement and stand out, these people become more of the mainstream. You only have to look at all the people with the barbed wire tattoos on their ankles and forearms or the women with the "butt antler" tattoos on their lower back. Actually being tattoo-less starts to be more of a statement.