My kids now call all their stuff — ie, various trikes, Big Wheels, scooters, bikes, wagons, etc. — their “vehicles.” Very official.
As in: “We spent the evening riding our vehicles with the Nekkid Neighbors.”
“You can’t be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet.” — Hal Borland, journalist (1900-1978)
I do not really have any idea at all what that quote means, but I like it. And now, in the spirit of the Chicken Dance…
“I don’t want to be a chicken/
I don’t want to be a duck/
So I shake my butt/
quack quack quack quack”
(my kids’ favorite song. Repeat 10 or 20 times in a row.)
have a super-wonderful day.
wm
Seriously. What happened to my brain? OK, a short list, then I go to work.
* The weather is sunny and HOT here in Portland, Ore. Go figure. What’s next, the smelt running?
* The kids are settling into first-grade and fourth-grade really well. A little too well. My daughter: “I know, Mom. My babies!”
* My babies!!!
* It was our tenth wedding anniversary. We went to the beach. The ocean was right there in our faces. The coast line is changing. Yikes.
* It was our girl’s birthday, so the celebration was for her, too. It’s a cocktail party on the street over here every September, what with the anniversary, the birthday, school starting, the realization that it’s almost fall and all we did all summer was water the garden and watch TV.
* Hockey God: “Did we even go to the beach this summer, other than right now?” Me: “Uhhh…” Wacky Girl: “We went last Easter.”
* We went to Depoe Bay, the “Smallest Harbor in the Universe” and watched the ships come and go. Did not see the whale the lady was trying to point out to us, “There! Past the rocks, about 300 yards…” Approximately 200 whales a year don’t mess with the roadtrip to Alaska, they just kick it at Depoe Bay, then head back to Mexico. Two hundred whales, you think we’d see one. It’s not like they’re tiny. Nope. Did see a large sea lion.
* If you have braces, you cannot eat the following: kettle corn, carmel corn, popcorn, caramel apples, fudge, salt water taffy. My poor kid.
* Also went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium and saw crazy fish and seal lions and otters and those adorable little snowy plovers.
* Went for lunch at Gracie’s Sea Hag (in beautiful downtown Depoe Bay) because, you know. It seemed appropriate. They play the Chicken Dance song on bottles and rock out. Our waitress was adorable.
* I gotta stop now or I’ll be late for work. What’s new with you, Internets?
love,
wm
A note I received today from Amnesty International. Because this can, and does, happen to black men across America, every year in this country. We have a disproportionate number of brothers locked up. We need to change this.
wm
Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed on September 23.
Justice matters, stop the imminent execution of Troy Davis!
Dear Nancy,
Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed by the state of Georgia on September 23, even though his serious claims of innocence have never been heard in court.
Take action right now to stop this execution!
Troy Davis was convicted of murder solely on the basis of witness testimony, and seven of the nine non-police witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony, several citing police coercion. Others have signed affidavits implicating one of the remaining two witnesses as the actual killer. But due to an increasingly restrictive appeals process, none of this new evidence has ever been heard in court.
Take action and then forward this action to ten friends!
On July 16, 2007, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles stayed Troy Davis’ execution, stating that it would “not allow an execution to proceed in this State unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused.” The failure of courts to hear the compelling evidence of innocence in this case means that massive doubts about Troy Davis’ guilt will remain unresolved.
Urge the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to be true to its words and prevent this execution from proceeding!
In solidarity,
Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn
Director, Death Penalty Abolition Campaign
Amnesty International USA
…- hello.
…-I am off to school soon. First day with students. Nervous? Yeah, like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
…-still reading like a maniac.
…-haven’t started my online class, although the textbook arrived several days ago.
…-I opened it up. Did you know they make the print in textbooks really really tiny small nowadays?
…-I’m sure it’s not my eyes.
…-my kids are excited about school. They set out their backpacks last night.
…-I have a big year planned. I’m going to read, read, read with the kids, everything from Where the Wild Things Are to Lemony Snickets. Yay. I will also give away a ton of books to the students and their parents — I appreciate that people like to donate books to schools, and I want to get them out to some readers. It’s so nice to be the middleman on this.
…-Do I go back to bed? Or start drinking coffee?
…-ha ha ha like that’s even a real question.
…-have a good day, y’all.
love,
wm
My favorite tortured love song. I love Karen Carpenter. Loved.
That was quoted to me by one of my girlfriends at bunco. This friend had been gently chided by another friend for being too overprotective. I tend to be a little too protective here, I will admit, but mainly it’s because I was raised by wolves.
Although I survived — didn’t necessarily thrive, but survived — it’s always been important to me that my kids not have to experience the chaos I did as a kid. Some of it was unpreventable — it was the late ’60s and into the ’70s when I was growing up, everyone was over-reacting to the chilly childhoods they experienced in the ’50s, we were all, you know.
Peace, love and understanding.
Even if that meant turning your kids over to your freaky, stoned friends so they could “help” you.
“It takes a village to raise a child!”
— H. Clinton and others
Yeah, don’t I know it? So when people give me grief because I won’t turn my kids over to them (to stay the night, to go riding in cars with people I don’t know, to go to parties where drugs are being consumed), forgive me and kiss my foot, would you? These are my babies, my joy, my responsibility.
I ran wild in the streets as a child. I truly did. My kids will never know the joy and pain of that.
But this summer I’ve been trying to give my kids a little more freedom. My daughter, who turns nine next week, has been working some as a mother’s helper for our neighbors. I still don’t want to leave her home alone, but she’s readying herself for it. (We’re homebodies. She will never get to throw parties because her Dad and I are hitting the bars and she knows good and well we won’t be home much before 2:30 or 3.)
(If we get home at all.)
Anyway. They’ve both started helping out with more chores at home, and they get to stay up later. They get allowances, and we’re spending some time talking about community service, why their Dad and I do the work we do, what first- and fourth-grade will be like.
We’re working on crossing the street alone, riding bikes, riding skateboards, safety, safety, and fun, fun, too.
What are you comfortable with (and not) with your kids, at the ages they are at? Why?
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