You have to see this to believe it.  Why haven’t I heard of this before?  At various times throughout the past 2 decades, I have belonged to the WWF, the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club and Save the Whales, wolves, fill in the blank.  And I have never heard of this before.  A quick search revealed numerous  links on the subject.  I think if more people see this, more people will use fabric shopping  bags and drink their pop from  aluminum instead of plastic. I know I’m making some big changes in what I do starting today.  Here’s the best story I found explaining the what, how and why.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLrVCI4N67M&feature=player_embedded

Does anyone else think that even the possibility that Global Climate Change (the term Global Warming is misleading to those who don’t care to research what the whole issue is actually about) might actually be happening outweigh the lining of industrialist’s pockets?   Shouldn’t we err on the side of caution here? I mean, if the science is conflicting, let’s go with the route that will save our collective asses, rather than worry about inconveniences (God Forbid! we should have to recycle or walk more or drive reasonably sized vehicles) or how much clean air is going to cost industries.  I know that we all benefit from those conveniences. But frankly, I would rather that my great grandchildren can breathe.

My kids already have to stay inside on “air quality warning days” and we live in rural Wisconsin for crying out loud!  I shudder to think what it must be like in places like Los Angeles.  I swear if I  hear one more person say that global warming is a hoax I might slap them across the face.

There is an episode of “Malcolm in the Middle” where Lois is in the middle of a   particularly trying shopping trip with her three boys, Malcolm, Reese and Dewey.  She starts to daydream about what it would be like if  she had three girls instead of the three boys.

As the mother of two very energetic, very boisterous, very rambunctious boys age 3 and 6, I can understand and empathize.  Why does every sentence out of a boy’s mouth have to be at top volume? 

Why do I have to dread hearing my 3 year old’s belly giggles brought on by his brother’s antics?  Because I know that is is a very fine line between laughter and crying when it comes to brothers.  It made me very sad today to realize that I tense up when I hear their mutual laughter, waiting for the other shoe to drop, rather than enjoy it.  In my defense, the older boy’s laughter is usually a little on the maniacal side.

So although, I am done having children…I  still wonder and dream of a  kinder, gentler household filled with tea parties and dress up, dolls and frilly dresses.  As opposed to the constant sound effects of action figures fighting “the bad guys”.

Every time I impale my foot on a Teenage  Mutant Ninja Turtlesque weapon of the plastic variety, I curse to myself and dream of fluffy kittens and stuffed animals with bows.

Alas, I am sure that I am deluding myself and the reality is really closer to Lois’ fantasy gone wrong at the end of the episode when her “girls” start fighting like cats and one announces she is pregnant (if I am remembering the episode correctly).

When they are sleeping peacefully, or when it’s just one of them individually, I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.  Together….some days I just want to put them out on the curb with a sign:  ”Free to a Good Home”.

I’m not going to apologize to anyone for what I am about to say.  I say good riddance to Michael Jackson.  Thank God he can’t hurt any more kids.  And to those of you  who are going to rail on me about the “justice” system and how people are innocent until proven guilty and all that crap.  Talk to all of the victims of crimes who have been screwed over by “lady” justice and paid the price because some criminal has enough cash to pay a high priced lawyer to get away with what they do (cough, coughMichaelJacksoncough, cough).

I swear he purposely read the text books on what child molesters look like and then fashioned his life around it.  Amusement park on his estate?  Most child molesters have to make do with having a few kids’ toys around to entice their victims.  Petting zoo?   Most child molesters maybe have a puppy.  And FYI, most child molesters have “Peter Pan Syndrome”-that’s why they can’t have normal adult relationships.  Michael wrote the book on that too.  His relationships are the very definition of “abnormal”.  I could go on and on.  I will be interested to see what Prince Michael I and Prince Michael II, or whatever those poor, home grown victims names are, have to say about Daddy Dearest when they are old enough to speak out.

So forgive me, if I am just a little bit disgusted that the whole world is deifying this pathetic excuse for a human being. 

Hey, does anybody care that Farrah died or Ed McMahon!?  Apparently not.  Too bad, because THAT is a real loss and tragedy.

By now, if you haven’t heard something about Twilight then you are either a monk or severly out of touch with pop culture.  Like many ‘of my kind’ I have long anticipated the movie version of the story I could not put down.  Now, I can’t seem to put the movie ‘down’ either.  I have Netflixed it twice, watched it, in whole and/or part, nine times and am resigned to the fact that I am going to have to just go out and buy it. 

Now let me say that I am not one of the those people.  I rarely read a book more than once (although I did have to read book six of Harry Potter before book seven came out but only because it had been so dang long, I couldn’t remember what happened at the end of book six).  I own many movies that I have never watched a second time, the Matrix, Meet Joe Black and for reasons I can’t quite explain, Never Been Kissed–the exceptions.

So to all of you men and some women out there who have seen the movie, but not read the book, and are left wondering how some “suburban white kid movie” (I love that quote, Chammie–I plan to use it a lot) has left their wife…girlfriend…mother?….panting after a crazy haired, pasty looking, dead boy:  you have to read the book to truly understand…and even then, you probably won’t get it.  So I am here to enlighten you….or at least shine a flashlight into the abyss so you can try to find your way out.

Here’s what you don’t know.  The thing that gets me, grabs me, keeps me coming back over and over and over…

You know that scene in the movie where Edward is sitting at the piano playing a song for Bella?  What the movie doesn’t show you is that Edward hadn’t played the piano for a long time before Bella came into his life and the song he is playing for her is a song she inspired him to write.

What girl doesn’t want to be an object of desire so inspiring, so beautiful, so sexy that her man is moved to write music beautiful enough to make angels weep?

Another painfully inadequate scene in the movie is the restaurant in Port Angeles.  What you don’t see, is that Edward tips the very attractive hostess to seat them somewhere more private (much to her chagrin) after she has dismissed Bella as a platonic friend of Edward’s and then proceeded to obviously flirt with him.  In the novel, their waitress is also an extremely attractive woman who flirts shamelessly with Edward while doing her best to be dismissive of Bella.  How does Edward handle this?  (Take note here men.)  He does not fawn and preen and flirt back.  No!  Instead, he does what we all hope and wish for out of our own men.  He is completely oblivious to all other women but Bella.  He never takes his eyes off her, he ignores the hostess and the waitresses’  advances as if they never occurred.  They might as well be ugly monkey men as far as he acknowledges. 

There isn’t anything sexier in a man than his utter devotion.  If you want to win your girl’s heart and soul, the ability to refrain from a double take when you walk past a supermodelish female at the mall is a really great place to start.

My favorite scene in the movie is the scene where Edward drives Bella to school the first time.  While he’s looking like the cat that ate the canary and she is looking exceedingly uncomfortable with being the center of attention everyone else stares in shock and disbelief. 

I think even most guys can understand the emotions behind this one.  What person hasn’t fantasized about the guy or girl who is so clearly out of their league?  What better fantasy than to have that person so smitten with you, that they are proud and delighted to parade in front of God and everyone with you on their arm?  I can’t think of anything more intoxicating:  that level of devotion from someone you are so taken with yourself, not to mention the massive self-esteem boost.

To someone who hasn’t read the novel, heck even someone who has, the speed and ease with which Bella accepts not only that her crush is a vampire, but one who has killed people, before she knows that he currently hunts only animals is something quite unbelieveable.  I mean, I know most of us have had a thing for a bad boy at one time or another and Lord knows most of us think we love a project–but this is just ridiculous!

Maybe it would help you to understand (probably not), if you knew that the “revelation” of how his skin sparkles in sunlight, his ability to read minds and the fact that he can run like lightening through the woods doesn’t happen as immediately in the novel as it does in the movie.  He doesn’t profess his love to her on the first date.  In the novel she has quite a bit more time to develop trust in him.  All of the revelations about what he is and what he can do, aren’t made in that one quick encounter in the woods.

Regardless of how anyone else feels about it, it’s going to be a favorite for me for a long time to come.  If you still don’t understand, that’s o.k.  We barely understand you most of the time, so we’re even.

I got sucked into a vortex of self pity and laziness.  So that’s my excuse and I’m stickin’ to it, because it’s the truth.  At least you don’t have to live with me.  Ask my hubby, he’ll tell you.

Thanks for the comments and I will be replying to everything I missed as soon as I can and posting something more substantial after that.

I just saw 800 thread count Egyptian Cotton sheets on a discounter’s website.

At what point does it stop being a sheet and become a tarp?

Last night my heart broke in two when my five year old son told my husband that he didn’t want to go to kindergarten because “the kids will make fun of me and tease me, because my skin is brown.”

I knew this time would come, I just hoped it wouldn’t be this soon.  I should have guessed and been more prepared after I overheard one of the boys at his preschool when he was 3 1/2 call for him by saying, “Hey black kid, your mom is here.”  Another three year old.  And said in a totally matter of fact, unmalicious tone.  But at that moment, I should have known that my beautiful boy was already being exposed to the kind of thinking that lead up to the stunning realization last night that my child feels that he is “less than” because he has more melanin in his skin than some of the other kids.

{Edit:  I realized in re-reading this post that it seems that I have taken a bigger leap than I have.  I failed to mention that several girls in his four year old kindergarten class told him they didn’t like him and he couldn’t play with them because his skin was brown and not white.  This revelation has sparked months of conversations about skin color and took a toll on his easygoing, happy-go-lucky personality.  These were girls that previously had no problems with playing with him and considered him their friend.  Whether the color of his skin was the real reason they didn’t want to play with him anymore, 4-5 is the age when they start noticing differences in skin color and understanding that there are social implications connected to skin color.  Whether they get it from t.v. or their parents is pretty irrelevant to me.  I just think it’s sad that somewhere they heard or decided that brown skin color might be a good thing to pick on a kid about.  Though I realize that children will latch on to the most obvious difference and make it a “bad” thing, it’s a pretty diverse center with lots of children of color.  It doesn’t appear that this was a “blanket” policy for these girls.  Whatever the reason the girls decided to pick on him about his skin color, the impact it has had on my child is what made me so sad when I first wrote this post.  Whether it’s racism or not, is open to interpretation.  I have certainly not identified it that way to my son.  I just tell him that some kids pick on other people to make themselves feel better because they don’t like themselves very much and we should feel sorry for them.  Then I focus on how smart and handsome and talented he is (he can run like the wind–it’s truly an amazing thing to see when he gets going full speed–and not just fast, but graceful and effortless).}

In a time when we might very well have the first black president of the United States being elected in a few months, I thought just maybe….

In a world where the internet has removed the physical barriers between people.  Where you can chat with someone from the Philippines or Moscow in the blink of an eye…  I hoped….

I guess I was an idiot…

Now I’m left with,  “Damn…I should have been more prepared for this.” 

I read all the right books.  I asked all the right questions.  But you are never prepared when the one who is your whole world is hurt by hate or ignorance.

All those people who will never see him for anything but “that black kid” will never know the sparkling eyes, the impish grin, the incredibly witty sense of humor…

They will miss out on the unboundless love and affection that this child carries within him. 

What a shame…

Do you ever have one of those days when you feel like the world is slightly tilted?  You are off-balance.  Nothing goes right.  Everyone seems to be trying to make your life a living hell.

Yep, been one of those days. 

Oddly, the song that has been running through my head all day is “These are the Days”  by 10,000 Maniacs.  Natalie Merchant has been taunting me for hours.

Somehow, I don’t think these are the kind of memories that she had in mind.

In my post on child molesters being someone you know well, Cindy commented about Triny Portillo (Trinidad Portillo) only serving a few months of a ten year sentence and she is absolutely correct.  I did some digging of my own and he is GUILTY!  But definitely NOT a registered sex offender.

When are lawmakers going to wake up and realize that child molesters can’t be rehabilitated or “cured”?  They can no more overcome their sexual preference for children than a gay person can force themselves to be straight or a straight person can force themselves to be gay.  They are turned on by children, they need to have sex with or fantasize about children to achieve sexual gratification. 

Hey, how about I tell you, Joe Straight Citizen that you can never again have sex with a female as long as you live.  How about you Joe Gay Citizen?  No sex with a man again ever?  How is that going to sit with you?

Do you think you could do it? Not have sex with any person that you are attracted to for the rest of your life?  Thaaaaat’s right….  I thought not!

So tell me, people!  Why do lawmakers thinks that pedophiles and child predators can just turn it off whenever they want?  They CAN’T!!!!!!  So cut the crap about how “at risk” for re-offending a sicko is and just make all the S.O.B.’s register!  For the love of God! 

When do children stop being chattel and start having the right to be free from being pawed by some twisted psycho who molested 20 other kids before, got caught once, spent an amount of time in jail that is less than what they would have gotten if they had abused an animal, but since they were a “first time” offender and “non-violent” and they are “very, very sorry officer-I won’t do it again-I promise”—DON’T HAVE TO REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER?!!!!!  So guess what judge, lawmaker, lawyer who got the nutbag a reduced sentence?!  Now he’s working at the daycare center where your child attends!  Still think he’s a low risk for re-offending?

When are people going to stand up and defend our children from the evil we already know?!  We can’t do much of a damned thing about the wackos who haven’t been caught yet, but why the HELL do we allow the other bastards to get out of jail and do it all over again!?