Juggling Life

Things That Make Me Go "Huh?

So I was at this lovely party Sunday night. We were under a pop-up tent at a concert in the park; our neighbors had set out a beautiful spread of hor'dourves with plenty of wine and beer (well, maybe not quite enough beer--they didn't know I was going to drink as much as I did!). The following conversation took place when I was on my first beer. Upon sober reflection, it may be the reason I drank the next few.

Very Well-Off Woman and I are surveying the spread--mixed, grilled vegetables on a pie crust spread with cream cheese and Boursin. Melon wrapped in Prosciutto, luscious red and green grapes and Brie, peppers stuffed with cream cheese and topped with pine nuts. Buffalo mozarella topped with slices of tomato and basil and drizzled with olive oil. All delicious, all beautifully presented.

I comment on how fantastic it all tastes, but admit to a bit of guilt since I've just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Very Well-Off Woman isn't familiar with the book, so I give a brief synopsis. Transporting our food from far-off places = not efficient, big carbon footprint. Eating locally grown produce in season = better for the environment. I mention that I found it ironic that I purchased the book at Costco at the same time I bought a Chilean pineapple, Ecuadoran bananas, and Mexican avocados.

She looked at me incredulously. "You don't really feel guilty about buying pineapple because of it's 'carbon footprint'?"

"Yes, I do. I think I should do a better job eating locally. I'm going to join Bee-Wise ranch cooperative again. I quit because I didn't always like the vegetables, but I should just cook what's in season, not simply what I have a taste for."

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. This world's been around a long time and there's nothing we're doing that's going to change that. I say eat whatever you want regardless of where it comes from. Life's too short to worry about stuff like this."

Huh? I'm guessing she thinks the Kyoto Protocol is a bunch of hogwash. I'm also assuming she won't be giving up her Lincoln Navigator anytime soon.

You can see why I had to have another drink, right?

Universal Health Care Why?

I spent several hours on a morning last week in a venue that provided some stellar people watching. My nephew, Gangsta Boy, was born with a congenital birth defect (cleft palate, bilateral cleft lip, premaxilla) that requires ongoing and expensive medical treatment. Right now his dad is without a job. We all know that no job = no health insurance. So we were navigating the necessary bureaucracy to get him some medical coverage. I'm sure you can picture the fun.

Anyway, seated a few chairs a way, was an attractive, young, blonde woman. About 26, very pretty, shiny ponytail. Her cell phone rang and I overheard the following conversation. I don't have it verbatim, but it went something like this.

"Well, that's not the only thing that happened. My daughter fell off the slide at the park and broke her front teeth. It was $600. Yep, after the $300 last week for her ear infection. So I think I'm going to marry this guy. He's military. He's not that cute and he's not really my type. But he is nice and it's great insurance."

In Which This Fourth Will Be A Little Like A Lot Of Other Fourths

I still live in the community in which I grew up. Fourth of July is a big deal here, and is my favorite holiday. Independence Day in Scripps Ranch has lots going for it. The day starts with the Fun Run/Bike Ride at 7 a.m. (I don't run, I walk, but I do manage the 10K) After the run the tradition is to rehydrate in the Beer Garden--yes, the beer starts flowing at 8 a.m.!

This is followed by the old fashioned parade--we are lucky to live a block from the parade route.

 

There are marching bands, scouts, homemade neighborhood floats, fire trucks, politicians (for the record I knew Randy "Duke" Cunningham was bad news way before he was indicted), the hysterical Society For The Preservation of the Middle Class (lawnmowers and Budweiser) "dance" group, and much more. Social Butterfly will be outfitted in cheer gear and marching and cheering with the high school squad.

The parade ends at a park where there is an Ice Cream Social and a live band.

Our family tradition necessitates following all of this by a long nap. Then we pack up a picnic and troop off to Coronado where they let you spread out on the golf course. We eat, play bocce ball, listen to music, and moan about the downside of the whole thing being that drinking and port-a-potties just don't mix--at least for 40ish women! The payoff is the fireworks shot off from a barge in the bay. I do love me a spectacular fireworks display!

    

The golf course is just southwest of the Coronado Bay Bridge.  Can you say (multi) million-dollar view?

Because we've been doing this for so long we know just where to park, and we have our children trained in the pack-and-run--we're back home in our beds while others languish on the bridge.

This year will be a little different. Danger Boy left for Canada for Water Polo camp on Thursday. Grown-up Girl won't be home because she has a job (one of the side effects of being Grown-up). We won't be going to Coronado because the friends with whom we share this tradition will be in Lake Tahoe--it's necessary to shake up traditions when you've just lost your husband and father.

A couple of hours ago we were just going to have a low-key, change of pace, restful Fourth. After a few phone conversations we're now having a barbecue for 15. Carne Asada because my BIL wasn't getting much good Mexican food in Washington state. In San Diego Carne Asada is about as American as apple pie. MVP's got a couple of friends visiting from Chicago--I bet they don't get a lot of good Carne Asada there either. We'll still go see fireworks, but at the local high school instead of Coronado.

I always feel a little discombobulated when we're missing part of our crew. I don't want to do everything the same if I don't have all my peeps around. So we'll change things up a little, but the basic celebration will be the same--we'll be celebrating this great country of ours, warts and all.

This year especially I hope we'll be looking forward to turning a lot of things around as a country, facing up to some hard truths, and taking a new tack on the world stage. I hope that before long America the country returns to being more of a reflection of Americans than it has been for a while.

 

                            Hope You Have A Blast!

 

               

Conversations I Would Rather Not Have Had

Social Butterfly: Why would they try someone as an adult when they're not an adult?

Me: If they try someone as a juvenile they can only keep them locked up until they're 25--even if they think they're still dangerous to society. If they think someone won't be ready to released by the time they're 25 they can only arrange that if they try them as an adult. They need to change the law to make another option between getting out at 25 and trying someone as an adult.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SB: If she's sick and they get her help and she gets better, then how will she live with herself when she realizes what she has done?

Me:

I have had the greatest field practicum experience ever this past semester. FP is sort of a part-time student teaching. The program I'm in provides for 2 FP experiences before the student teaching semester.

This semester I had hoped for a placement in the Juvenile Court school, but the person in charge of that program left so I got my second choice, a Title I school that's about 99.9 % English Learner. I was placed in fifth-grade with a fantastic male teacher. I learned so much from him, and I fell in love with the students right away. Even though my official time at the school is over, I'm continuing to go once a week--I wanted to do Open House and be with them at Promotion as well as teach more art.

I am very lucky that my master teacher appreciated my art background and was more than happy to have me bring art into his classroom. I firmly believe that the lack of art in our schools is a counter-productive tragedy. I know there are many students who drop out of school that might make it through if they had something in school at which they could excel. Not everyone is wired for that to be math or language arts. It might be music or art or construction or mechanics; yet we've taken all these opportunities away.

 

I did this mosaic project with the kids recently. This piece was done by one of those students that is probably not going to make it (at least according to my  somewhat WASPY definition of making it). He's been expelled from one elementary school already. He's smart, he's obviously artistic, but the deck is just stacked against him. He's way too easily led and due to his socioeconomic status he's got too much unsupervised time on his hands.

This  project is probably the last time he's going to have a chance to tap into his artistic side, at least at school. Somehow I just have the feeling if there's going to be something to save this kid, it might be art and a connection with a great art teacher. Except I don't think he's going to get that. It's just not part of the back-to-basics, literacy heavy curriculum that his middle school runs--especially for a student with EL status.

Thinking about his probable future really just breaks my heart.

Uncle Sam Wants Who?

Big Red will be turning 18 in a couple of weeks, so he received this in the mail:

 

Okay, his card isn't quite that large, but you get the picture.

Selective Service Registration

WHO MUST REGISTER
Almost all male U.S. citizens, and male aliens living in the U.S., who are 18 through 25, are required to register with Selective Service. It's important to know that even though he is registered, a man will not automatically be inducted into the military. In a crisis requiring a draft, men would be called in sequence determined by random lottery number and year of birth. Then, they would be examined for mental, physical and moral fitness by the military before being deferred or exempted from military service or inducted into the Armed Forces.

Guess what Grown-up Girl did not get for her 18th birthday? You guessed it--no mandatory Selective Service Registration for her.

Without going into what I think about SSR as a matter of policy, or the odds that we'll ever have a draft again, or my views on war in general, I have to note that only males are required to register. And that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me.

I am a feminist. I happen to be a feminist who has spent my adult life fulfilling a very traditional role, that of stay-at-home-mom and homemaker, but I am a feminist. And as such, I believe that women are capable of doing any job a man can do and deserve every opportunity men have.

If a woman deserves the same rights and opportunities as a man, does it not follow that she should have the same responsibilities? I believe it does. I can't think of a single reason that my son should be expected and possibly ordered to serve his country, but my daughter should not.

I have discussed this with mothers "in real life." What I find is that mothers of only girls are appalled at the idea. Mothers of only boys have never really considered the idea. And mothers who have both boys and girls may be surprised by the idea, but they concede that it does make sense that equal rights should also entail equal responsibilities.

Personally, the idea of any of my children going to war terrifies me. It would be worse if they went because of a draft rather than having entered the military voluntarily. I just can't imagine thinking that it would be acceptable that only our sons bear this burden.

After all, we've come a long way, baby--and sometimes, along with the upside, there's a downside.

Ain't This The Truth

 

I read this in Salon one day and found it to be both utter genius and truly depressing.

After shaving its head and driving drunk around the globe with no panties, calling itself the Antichrist, and finally abandoning its children, totaling its SUV and getting its ass kicked in the parking lot of the Persian Gulf, America is realizing that it is internationally loathed, broke, soulless, tasteless, fat, drunk, malicious, greedy and stupid, and has been generally behaving like a lousy excuse for a world superpower for long enough to lose all its friends and position.

I hope we're really ready to make some changes. Because even though this may be how America is behaving, it is not who Americans are; at least not the ones I know.

Talking Politics

Politics--to blog about or not to blog about? I feel my politics are such an integral part of who I am, I'll have to go with blog about. I come from a family of serious voters--I have a newspaper clipping showing my great-grandmother being wheeled into a polling place to vote in the 1920 presidential election. Now am I gonna mess with a tradition like that? No way. My family may have a strong history of alcoholism and mental illness, but we do our civic duty. I am proud to say I have never failed to vote in any election no matter how meaningless small. I'm also tickled that Grown-up Girl registered to vote on her 18th birthday, and Big Red is planning on doing the same. Some family traditions are worth passing on.

I have to say that after the last few years of worrying about the state of our country, the direction we're headed in, and our standing in the international community, I'm beginning to feel a glimmer of hope for our future as a nation. In particular, this is where my hope lies:

I support him because, for the first time in my life, I feel the kind of hope and inspiration that my mom talked about when she talked about JFK. It's kinda cool after a life time of cynicism. Any worries I have about lack of experience are assuaged by my belief that a smart, inspirational person can surround him/herself with experts and make informed decisions; leadership is, in many ways, an intuitive art.

That said, even if Obama doesn't win, I think we still might be okay. It seems to me that we have a deeper pool of talent and passion than we've had for awhile. (We also have some total knuckleheads). It also seems like the people of the United States of America may be waking up to the realization that we have to take an actual role in our government. It is heartening that more young people plan on voting.

I hope I haven't turned anyone off by voicing my choice, but I do believe that it is good for us, as citizens, to be able to participate in open dialogue and civilly agree to disagree when necessary.

I may be old, but I can still ROCK THE VOTE!