Month: September 2012

  • Middle School

    ********any pictures of this event have been withheld from this blog to protect the young and stupid ignorant*********

    Let me start by saying that I've been recently cleaning out and boxing up my eldest daughter's room.  She is now in college and hasn't been home for over a year.  Her room is a shrine to middle school as she went away for high school, and the angst that oozes from that place is difficult to live in so I take this cleaning out in small doses.  (I am excited to have a sewing room though, so I go up there frequently to wade through the stuff.)

    Let me start by saying that many people tell me they'd love to be young again, "knowing what they know now."  Re-live Middle and High School?!  Not. Me.  Isn't the point of being young that you DON'T know much.  Plus you're dealing with tons of changing hormones and uncertainty.  I may be achy and slow, but I wouldn't EVER want to relive that stuff.  My calmer demeanor is a much happier place to live.  Being settled and balanced is a Libra thing.  And did I mention it is my birthday today?

    Let me start by saying that the Middle School dance my poor, patient, sweet husband and I chaperoned for our youngest daughter, Seeta, last night was LOUD.  The kids were hysterical to watch.  The music was LOUD.  The kids were sad to watch.  The music was REALLY LOUD.  Of course I don't really understand the working mind of the average 12 to 14 year old and, oh - did I mention that it was LOUD?!  A much needed glass of wine greeted me when we got home - or was that whine?  I thought so.

    Let me start by saying that it wasn't really a DANCE, per say, as much as it was a three hour recess in a dark gym with really loud music (I'm sure I've mentioned that before) and for the most part, the kids were bored, so they found ways to entertain themselves that mostly bordered on mischief.  I can see why kids feel compelled to attend (one must see & be seen after all) and why they would not want to be there (the social pressure is huge.) 

    OK, so I'm not really just starting any more, but I am stuttering my start since this was such a traumatic event for me!  I might take days to recover and I might even have to do some of my own dancing the funky chicken in my kitchen (and singing loudly) to recover... and that would not be a pretty thing.

    Since our school hosted this dance, all proceeds went towards the eighth grade trip and graduation expenses and Seeta's class earned about $300.  The one thing I liked was that is wasn't my daughter's class (or even kids from our school) that misbehaved, it was their so called guests from the next town over.  So, the observations about this age group start with my inability as an adult to understand why kids pay money to socialize and then immediately start texting on cell phones, listening to ipods or playing gameboys - something they could have done alone and saved money on by not attending a social function.  I do realize that as an adult I will never understand this kind of thing.

    As a casual observer I noticed that the popular kids are doing a lot of posturing.  It's hard work making sure that you keep your status of 'hot stuff' or 'cool dude' or however it is referred to these days.  The unpopular kids were buzzing like insects around the popular kids trying to get their attention, and either annoying the populars and almost starting fights or getting teased badly.  This figuring out how to fit in stuff, is hard!

    As a parent observer, I was appalled at the lack of manners/respect the kids showed.  I felt obliged to pick up after the mongrels who dropped lollipop sticks, food wrappers and water/gatorade bottles so our gym floor wouldn't get ruined.  I know these kids don't go around dropping garbage on the floor at home or anywhere else, why do they lose civilized practice in this circumstance?  Perhaps it was the over-consumption of sugar.  There were lollipops, jolly ranchers, and twizzlers - to name but a few kinds of candy sold - by the giant bagfuls... how else do you suppose we earned all that money? 

    So our school's kids have to host a dance every other month and there are 4 more scheduled this school year.  The question I have is... can I bring my cell phone/ipod/gameboy/ (or more realistically) knitting project with me the next time I have to chaperon? 

  • Middle School Dance

    In a very few minutes I leave to chaperone my daughter's Middle School Dance.

    I'd rather eat worms.

    But it should give me much fodder to blog about - especially stuff to embarrass her, which is my job after all.

    OK, I'd rather NOT eat worms.

    So get out the cotton for my ears and tylenol for my head...  I'll let you know how it goes.

  • Are you the person you'd thought you'd be at this age? Why or why not?

    For me, this is an interesting question, since my birthday is just around the corner - literally hours away.  Being that I am a Libra (scales - always balancing everything) my answers always have a 'yes & no' quality to them for these big/thoughtful questions.  I like to look at many sides.

    In some ways I had little reason to think about me at 49.  No one thinks about what they'll be like when they are 50, unless they are in their 40s.  So on the one hand (say, up until my 30s), I am NOT the person I thought I'd be, because I couldn't even imagine it.  Not that I thought I'd be dead, but who the hell even thinks about that kind of thing when so young.  Fifty (ok, ok, 49) is just so, so... OLD; until you hang out with folks in their 70s like I do now, and then not so much anymore.  At that time, I was full of anxiety, stressed and full of angst.  Aside from that, I didn't have a thought, never mind a clue; I was trying to survive from day to day and didn't think about the future.

    But in some ways, I am exactly where I wanted to be, what I wanted to be - something I've striven for.  A decent mother.  A wife in a good relationship.  Contented... (Hmmm sounds like I'm cow-like here) dare I say, happy.  I've trained to do several things career wise, but not stayed with any of them.  A Jack/Jill of all trades, master of little.  I've decided not be filled with regrets and so I've done what I wanted.

    Normally I like to add humor to my posts but this was not done in that vein - maybe I'll forgo the Featured Question in the future.

    I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

  • Don't Hate Me Because I am Beautiful...

    ...Hate me because

     

    I wear penguins on my sweaters.

    My children don't turn out like I want them to

    I love my small yappy lap dogs.

    I don't drink beer.

    I sing the wrong words to songs, on purpose..

    I am a reading/book addict.

    I've been known to keep small farm animals in the bathroom.

    I am a terrible correspondent.

    I am allergic to laundry.

    By night I am a totally different character.

    I can't say 'no'.

    I will dance the funky chicken in my kitchen.

    I knit in bed.

    I love raw seafood.

    Even though I can cook, I don't.

     

    I mean, if you're going to hate me at least make it for a good reason.

     

    or was that sweaters on my penguins?!
     
     

  • In for a Penny, In for a Pond

    I wonder why when people see water in a 'pond-type' situation they feel compelled to throw money in it.  Is there some compulsion that the money will grow from being in water?  It must work on one level since more people throw money into a pond after they see some money on the bottom.  Who's wish are they really trying to make come true?  The only one's wish I can see being filled is the poor sucker who rolls up his pant legs and goes in to get the coins.  It's not a very big wish generally, I mean, how much can you expect for a few coins?

     

    Part of this query comes from the knowledge that money in water is a bad thing for the ecology of the water - especially salt water.  Copper is used to kill off plant life (algae)  in water and heavy metals aren't good for the animals either.  When I worked in a pet store, some numbnuts hid a penny in a coral rock in the large salt water aquarium and killed everything in the tank.  That person knew they were doing something wrong since they went to such lengths to hide the penny. 

     

    Speaking of pet stores... this past week I went into a pet store where there was a nurse shark in a large fish tank.  There of course is the clever sign that basically says, "Don't put your hands in the tank."  I remarked to the person working there that it seemed pretty self evident that one should not put body parts into a tank with a shark (or piranhas, or a snapping turtle, or an electric eel for that matter - all of which I have seen needing signs.)

     

     

    He said that adults are the worst offenders.  Go figure!?  And for those of you who need to know, it is more for the protection of the animal than the person - people's hands are not clean, but still!

     

    Now here's an odd fact about me.  I have my certification for SCUBA diving and the first dive I went on was a shark dive in the Bahamas.  It is a dive where the Bull sharks are used to being fed so they hang out and tourist divers watch.  These are not Nurse sharks.  So, by definition, I am a thrill seeker, right?!  And I still wouldn't put my fingers in a tank with a "dangerous" animal.

     

    So, how about it.  Are you the kind who tempts the fates with sharks?  Don't forget to wish for immunity when you throw that penny in the pond.

  • It takes a whole child to raise a village

    Not just the left elbow, for example, because you know how hard it is to get that village to listen.  Hardly anyone listens to a left elbow unless it is in pain; even if you paint a face on it first the tendency is to ignore it.  I won't even go into listening to the gall bladder.

    So you have to use the whole child.  Even then, as I've said before, it is difficult to get a village to listen.  They are always too busy playing, "How to get weapons of mass destruction away from the axis of evil" to come when dinner is called.

    I know, I've tried and I've had to repeat myself at least three times before I even get, "I'll be there in a minit!!"

    Villages these days, there's just no respect!

     

    Now let's all go and sing "Kumbaya" or even, "It's a Small World After All."

  • My Parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary photoblog

    So, with what we call "Franksgiving" coming up (and I wonder what he - my hubby - will be giving?)  I am revisiting my vacation post.  It was the last time my family got together.  I have an amazing family.  We pretty much get along and enjoy each others company.  I purchased a lot of items in Alaska just for this holiday - mostly smoked Alaskan salmon.  We'll be revisiting our trip - the pictures are amazing, but not as amazing as seeing that stuff in real life - and I am mooley excited.  Don't know what 'mooley' is?  I guess I'll have to explain in a different post.

     

    My parents decided that they wanted a family trip to commemorate their 50th Anniversary.  They chose to go on a National Geographic/Linblad Explorer Cruise in south east Alaska with the family.  My parents, my family, my sister's family, my brother's family, my father's brother & his wife, and my mother's brother and his son attended.  There were 19 of us on a boat that has room or about 60 passengers.  To the rest of the guests we were known as "The Family."  Very mafia(ish) if you ask me!

     

    Here we all are (sans the sick uncle) on the bow of the Sea Lion.

     

    On our second day we went to South Sawyer Glacier.  Here we saw harbor seals galore and really cool icebergs:

    I love the color of this ice!

    The girls get their own 'pet iceberglets'

     

    and this contrast from the red iron of the mountain to the blue ice was beautiful.

     

    The next day was our only foul weather day.  The mood fog looked like this:

    We saw humpback whales in the fog, which was cool, but the pictures aren't good enough to post.

     

    By the way... we were told that in the three months of summer, there were 10 sunny days.  We had five of them.  I credit my parents for this as they live a charmed life!

     

    On the fourth day in the morning we saw Orca:

    It was a pod of five whales, one male, two female and two calves.

    On the fourth day, in the afternoon we took a zodiac out to view the wildlife:

    Sea Otters are usually very shy.  Today, however, we were studiously ignored.

    Don'tcha just love the size of those feet!

     

    Stellar Sea Lions - love to lay in a huge pile and complain.

     

    A curious boy checks our our zodiac.

     

    In the afternoon we saw more humpback whales:

    The neatest part about this encounter was that we were in an area of about 40 whales that were trumpeting back and forth to each other surface feeding over an area of several miles along the coast.  Even the naturalists on board were impressed.

      The whales were so close it was amazing!

     

    We call this a rain-blow.

     

    Day 5 is Glacier National Park.  John Hopkins Glacier calved for us very frequently. 

    There was a noise like thunder with each calving and a huge set of waves that accompanied the bigger ones.

    John Hopkins Glacier is one of the few glaciers that isn't receding.

     

    I admit I can't remember where this was taken, but it was so beautiful I had to put it in.

     

    The next two days were dedicated to looking at nature:

     

    Mergansers

     

    Tufted Puffins

     

    Mama Griz & her two cubs

     

    finally a pod of 9 humpback whales 'bubble-net' feeding.
    This was really amazing as a microphone was put underwater and we listened to the calls of the whales as they coordinated their feeding efforts.

     

    The trip was an incredible experience.  I thank my loving parents for the adventure of a lifetime.

    The happy couple

    Thanks again, Mom & Dad, I love you!

     

    P.S.  I tried to get these pictures to be larger than you see them, but I don't know how to do that.  I'm sorry for it, but if you know how, let me know, O.K.?