The end of the decade

The magazines I subscribe to are sending out their year end retrospective on not just the year 2010 but the end of the decade.

And it was a pretty incredible decade.  The Clinton terms ended with the dramatic Bush/Gore showdown, quickly followed by 9/11.

That was the day we locked ourselves inside to watch people die on television.  It was the day that made us feel unsafe to this day.  It was the day that was executed by a wealthy, religious zealot or our own government depending on who you talk to.

We saw the fall of Saddam Hussein while a decadence and luxury chasing consumerism rose to levels never seen before.

Katrina flooded New Orleans while the rest of the world watched in confusion as aid did not arrive and the body count rose.

Celebrity sex tapes ceased to be scandalous and bubble-gum pop made a comeback.

Paris Hilton called herself the blond icon of the decade and, sadly, she was right.

American Idol told us what to like.  "Reality" television made stars out of badly behaved rich people.  Oprah explained how to do everything exactly the way she did.

Sitcoms  went away in favor of crime dramas, then came back and Tony Soprano lived and died.

We shocked the world by electing a black man President, causing people to run through the streets yelling "Yes we did!  Yes we did!"  But everyone made history either voting for President Obama or voting for the first woman Republican VP candidate.

The Tea Party rose up in the face of the huge changes trying to happen with righteous indignation and Sarah Palin as their lipsticked leader.

British Petroleum poisoned the Gulf of Mexico and blamed it on the U.S. government for not calling them on their unsafe practices.

Soldiers went overseas and came back broken heroes for eight months before being sent back into the danger zone.

Meth replaced crack as the evil drug, but is the first to shift around the floorplan of your brain.

Harry Potter held us spellbound and vampires sparkled.

A mother demanded and explanation, Michael Moore staged his documentaries and Morgan Spurlock went on a McDonald's binge.

Everyone got on Facebook and Twitter making narcissism a national pastime.

The banks failed, needing to be bailed out like a college student that spent the last of their grant money and calls their parents for a ride home.

People were defaulted by their lenders and lost their homes anyway, while the executives that tricked them got richer than ever.

The fallout from this decade will most likely still be alive and well when my children graduate from high school.

My grandchildren will ask me where I was when the Twin Towers came down or if I voted for Obama or how people bought marijuana before it was legal.

An historical decade to be sure.  Tomorrow, I'll tell you about how the last ten years changed my life for good or better.

Amanda's beauty tip of the day:  Red lipstick looks good on EVERYONE.  That's not just my opinion, it's shared by a multitude of make-up artists and beauty pros.