Okay...I can now publically admit it.
I voted for Barack Obama!
Man, what a relief to finally get to SAY that! For those of you wondering why I kept it a secret, there's a ton of reasons. First of all, I'm a teacher, so I never tell the kids who I plan to vote for. They're always trying to gauge their own thoughts with my own and I want them to decide for themselves.
The biggest, though, was the subject of one of my earlier blogs and where the title for this one came from. I didn't want people throwing away my political opinion just because I was black. With some of the folks I know, just saying that I was voting for him would have made them decide to not listen to anything I had to say about ANYthing. They would have been disgusted, thinking I only voted for him because of his race and that "we all stick together".
This is patently NOT true. There are about as many divides in the black community as there are in the white community, so looking like someone does not automatically mean I'll be casting a vote for them. I was ready to vote for either of them back in the primaries, but in the end, I really just paid attention to what the candidates had to say and felt like Obama was the most likely candidate for CHANGE.
Watching the returns was amazing. I was completely overjoyed until I listened to McCain's concession speech.
And then, right in the middle, I started to cry.
All this time and I had truly forgotten that he was the FIRST (frankly, I forgot he was black at ALL!). He did such an amazing job of making this NOT about race that people of ALL races truly forgot. Personally, I really only cared about CHANGE, not making history or anything else. Even before I walked into the polling booth, Kevin nudged my elbow and whispered "Go make history." And it still didn't hit me.
But once I remembered, really understood, I wished that my (and his) grandmother had lived to see the day. My own parents (who never voted in their lives until 2000) even said they really had never expected to see this in their lifetime. Dad said he'd just never thought that far ahead. I liken it to the way one doesn't think of marrying flowers. It's not that they can't be pretty and sweet, but the idea of marriage to a plant just seems so farfetched as to never occur to you.
My favorite saying from all this was on a t-shirt:
Rosa sat so Martin could walk
Martin walked so Barack could run
Barack is running so our children can FLY.
Speaking of children, despite my attempts to NOT discuss my personal political views and stick to the basic facts of the American election process, this whole thing held my class in its thrall. I was so proud! Last week was NY Kids Voting, but I had NO info on the candidates. I was very disappointed because NO one should vote without finding out the FACTS about the people involved. So, without my telling them to, many of them went and did research on their own. When I mentioned that the US president is a world leader, one of my boys asked "How can we be so popular if our economy is so bad?" They kept asking great questions, so instead of sticking to the basics, we went deep into everything that's been hitting the US (war, economy, etc.). We even talked about what a patriot really is (ANYone who defends their country against outside influences). On Tuesday, we kept an electoral college map that refreshed every 10 minutes up on the tv with kid votes from all over the US. They were excited today when they checked the real map and saw how well the kids mirrored their parents in voting (which led to the discussion of why kids AREN'T allowed to vote).
Anyway, it's been one amazing race...now I'm just praying for the man's safety and hoping people aren't looking at me now and thinking I'm gloating. I'm not, I promise. I'm just glad to see that something NEW is happening. The world can FINALLY look at us and think we're good people again, not selfish brats that like to bully our way into whatever financially benefits us.
So, I'm all full of national pride again...and not in that "holier-than-thou-'cause-I'm-a-bigger-patriot-than-you" kind of way, either. Just the "glad-we're-back-to-normal-with-a-HUGE-sigh-of-relief" kinda way!
D.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
On the heels of THAT...
With all the wonderful racially insensitive things I've bumped into this summer, you'd think I never crossed the Mason-Dixon line back in 2001...!
Without going into too many specifics, I had another issue in which someone relatively close to me didn't understand my feelings about something that was blatantly stereotypical of African Americans. I was worked up enough about this to ask friends what to do and while some wanted me to just tell her off, the others were of one mind:
"Why bother? This person is obviously not worth your time, so ignore them. You can't change their views!"
But to that, I reply with the words of James Baldwin: "We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force that can change it."
And therein lies the rub. Once it comes to something racial, it goes beyond my personal wants and into African American ambassadorship. Frankly, I'd LOVE for this person to leave me alone for the rest of our lives (and I felt that way BEFORE all this), but, if I go and hurt their feelings, they'll think "Black people are too sensitive about these things...they don't understand MY feelings." And NOW I've made it difficult for some other black person down the road. It's a chain effect that my generation and those before me pay a GREAT deal of attention to. We watched great men like Martin Luther King and learned that if no one tried to change the attitudes of the world, we ALL suffered. We needed to show gratitude for those who fought for our rights before us by continuing to change people's views wherever we went and set positive examples for those to come. So, none of us are comfortable just letting ignorance or stubbornness in race relations go. I have friends who became doctors and lawyers and other upstanding community members. For my part, I became a teacher and teach kids as they grow to treat everyone with respect, no matter what family members might say. It's a lifelong balancing act, saying what you think, but finding the right words and ways to say it so that you make a difference.
Honestly, there's just so much more to being darker skinned than anyone ever imagines. You become the channel through which other races and cultures learn...and it's up to you what they take from their experience. Most of you are blessed with the ability to be responsible for ONLY your actions. If you say something rude or make your point to someone, they can ONLY say "Well, (insert your name here) sure pissed me off" or "(insert your name here) makes a good point". For me, it becomes "Well, black people ARE just as violent as they say" or "Well, there ARE some good ones after all". People will genuinely base their experiences on their one or two friends/enemies of a certain culture or race. If I'm lucky, I meet someone whose mind I change so that they think of me as JUST me (or just think positively about the whole race so they can spread the word to friends). Since I don't know whether it's a lucky day or not, I play diplomat rather than take the chance.
Anyway, on the up side of all this is school. The first week of school is ALWAYS the promise of fresh young minds that will learn and pass information along to the next person they meet. It's like my own lifelong grassroots effort! :-) So, for now, I'm looking to the future and shelving the past...after all, it makes it easier to travel down the road of life when you look where you're going!
D.
Without going into too many specifics, I had another issue in which someone relatively close to me didn't understand my feelings about something that was blatantly stereotypical of African Americans. I was worked up enough about this to ask friends what to do and while some wanted me to just tell her off, the others were of one mind:
"Why bother? This person is obviously not worth your time, so ignore them. You can't change their views!"
But to that, I reply with the words of James Baldwin: "We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force that can change it."
And therein lies the rub. Once it comes to something racial, it goes beyond my personal wants and into African American ambassadorship. Frankly, I'd LOVE for this person to leave me alone for the rest of our lives (and I felt that way BEFORE all this), but, if I go and hurt their feelings, they'll think "Black people are too sensitive about these things...they don't understand MY feelings." And NOW I've made it difficult for some other black person down the road. It's a chain effect that my generation and those before me pay a GREAT deal of attention to. We watched great men like Martin Luther King and learned that if no one tried to change the attitudes of the world, we ALL suffered. We needed to show gratitude for those who fought for our rights before us by continuing to change people's views wherever we went and set positive examples for those to come. So, none of us are comfortable just letting ignorance or stubbornness in race relations go. I have friends who became doctors and lawyers and other upstanding community members. For my part, I became a teacher and teach kids as they grow to treat everyone with respect, no matter what family members might say. It's a lifelong balancing act, saying what you think, but finding the right words and ways to say it so that you make a difference.
Honestly, there's just so much more to being darker skinned than anyone ever imagines. You become the channel through which other races and cultures learn...and it's up to you what they take from their experience. Most of you are blessed with the ability to be responsible for ONLY your actions. If you say something rude or make your point to someone, they can ONLY say "Well, (insert your name here) sure pissed me off" or "(insert your name here) makes a good point". For me, it becomes "Well, black people ARE just as violent as they say" or "Well, there ARE some good ones after all". People will genuinely base their experiences on their one or two friends/enemies of a certain culture or race. If I'm lucky, I meet someone whose mind I change so that they think of me as JUST me (or just think positively about the whole race so they can spread the word to friends). Since I don't know whether it's a lucky day or not, I play diplomat rather than take the chance.
Anyway, on the up side of all this is school. The first week of school is ALWAYS the promise of fresh young minds that will learn and pass information along to the next person they meet. It's like my own lifelong grassroots effort! :-) So, for now, I'm looking to the future and shelving the past...after all, it makes it easier to travel down the road of life when you look where you're going!
D.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Spanish Team on Offense AND Defense...!
So I'm reading stuff about the photo the Spanish team did about the Chinese (the one where they do the slanted eyes thing) and I'm finding more and more people that don't understand the offense, here. So, let's put this whole "ethnic joke" thing into perspective, shall we?
Try putting yourselves in the Chinese players shoes for a moment. Picture how you've felt in school when someone made you feel stupid or look stupid, all the while laughing at you and getting others to join in. Picture the times that you've tried to fit in and felt out of place. Picture ANY time at ALL when all you wanted to do was blend in with others and not have someone point out how much you are NOT like them. This is how intelligent people of other races feel every time someone does another slanty eye joke, another ebonics joke or any other joke that makes their people look foolish.
I think the reason why many people are confused is because they can't fathom how a joke like that affects those people or reflects on those people, regardless of the intent. There seems to be a consensus in America that it's acceptable to make fun of another culture if you:
A) "don't mean anything by it" or say you're just joking (as in the Spanish photo
B) have done it long enough that it's okay to you or would take too much effort on your part to change (Ex--keeping the name Squaw in names of places or keeping offensive Native American images like the Cleveland Indians because so many people have a history with those things)
C) know a person or persons from that culture who will laugh with you or use the same words to make fun of a culture, which gives you license to do so (ex--"Well, my black friend says the "n" word, so I should be able to!" or "I know a ton of Chinese guys and THEY didn't mind!")
All of these are really just excuses to belittle someone else and make them feel like I mentioned above. Think about what you'd do if these guys had pretended to act like a person with mental disabilities or handicaps...we'd ALL be up in arms because it's considered rude. There is NO difference at ALL in making fun of another race or culture.
If you can take anything from this, remember this...just because a LOT of people have done it all their lives or think it's acceptable does NOT MAKE IT SO. After all, lots of folks liked slavery and backed the Holocaust...didn't make them RIGHT. And even if it's a joke to you (or you wouldn't MIND that same joke done on you), it's not always funny to the person who has to show people that they are SO MUCH MORE more than just differently shaped eyes, darker skin or a different accent.
Hope that helps...really! :-)
Try putting yourselves in the Chinese players shoes for a moment. Picture how you've felt in school when someone made you feel stupid or look stupid, all the while laughing at you and getting others to join in. Picture the times that you've tried to fit in and felt out of place. Picture ANY time at ALL when all you wanted to do was blend in with others and not have someone point out how much you are NOT like them. This is how intelligent people of other races feel every time someone does another slanty eye joke, another ebonics joke or any other joke that makes their people look foolish.
I think the reason why many people are confused is because they can't fathom how a joke like that affects those people or reflects on those people, regardless of the intent. There seems to be a consensus in America that it's acceptable to make fun of another culture if you:
A) "don't mean anything by it" or say you're just joking (as in the Spanish photo
B) have done it long enough that it's okay to you or would take too much effort on your part to change (Ex--keeping the name Squaw in names of places or keeping offensive Native American images like the Cleveland Indians because so many people have a history with those things)
C) know a person or persons from that culture who will laugh with you or use the same words to make fun of a culture, which gives you license to do so (ex--"Well, my black friend says the "n" word, so I should be able to!" or "I know a ton of Chinese guys and THEY didn't mind!")
All of these are really just excuses to belittle someone else and make them feel like I mentioned above. Think about what you'd do if these guys had pretended to act like a person with mental disabilities or handicaps...we'd ALL be up in arms because it's considered rude. There is NO difference at ALL in making fun of another race or culture.
If you can take anything from this, remember this...just because a LOT of people have done it all their lives or think it's acceptable does NOT MAKE IT SO. After all, lots of folks liked slavery and backed the Holocaust...didn't make them RIGHT. And even if it's a joke to you (or you wouldn't MIND that same joke done on you), it's not always funny to the person who has to show people that they are SO MUCH MORE more than just differently shaped eyes, darker skin or a different accent.
Hope that helps...really! :-)
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Kevin's new blog!
Finally, he's computer savvy!
Kevin finally got tired of writing long e-mails and decided to create a blog of his own. He's an amazing write in his own right with insights that crack us all up (when we have time to read them in our inboxes)! So, without further ado: http://whineratthegatesofdawn.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
D.
Kevin finally got tired of writing long e-mails and decided to create a blog of his own. He's an amazing write in his own right with insights that crack us all up (when we have time to read them in our inboxes)! So, without further ado: http://whineratthegatesofdawn.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
D.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Days of Saturdays Mornings Past (Kevin's Interlude)
Currently, I'm in Portland, Oregon for the Comedy Sportz World Tournament, so I've been without electronic sustenance for close to 5 days. While I've been gone (and ever BEFORE I left), my husband Kevin was been writing e-mails worth of blog notice. So until he decides to host his own blog, I've decided to post his ramblings here for everyone's enjoyment:
It's 7:00am on a Saturday morning. Daina won't get back from Portland until this Monday morning, so I figured that I'd visit an old friend.... Saturday Morning Cartoons. Only.... my friend wasn't there. Oh, there was something for kids 5 and under on PBS but that's ok. Long has PBS been the venue for the more junior execs of the Saturday Morning living room. Sesame Street, The Electric Company, The Great Space Coaster, etc. That's fine. I always believed the shortest of the shorties need orientation programs before they can understand the complexity of navigating the vast array of the more advanced viewing fare that they will face on Saturday Mornings. Rather than spend my time warming up with PBS, I decided to go right to the powerhouses.... NBC, CBS, and the venerable ABC. Now you're talkin'! These are the titans of Saturday Mornings! Who could escape their black hole strength pull on the eyes and minds of millions of Saturday Morning viewers across this great nation of ours.... who’d want to?
Ok, let’s just work up the channels then. NBC…Nbc…nbc… ???? Let’s check this remote to see if I’m on the right channel because this is the Today show. Hold on a second. The Today show DOES air on NBC! What the….!? Ok, let’s go to CBS then…. What the hell is Weekend Wake Up!? I’m already awake! I don’t need an hour-long program to tell me that!! Ok, ABC then! Good ol’ ABC! You won’t fail me! Long have you been the mightiest bastion of Saturday Morning Cartoondom! Who could match your unrivaled power when you drew the mighty sword of Warner Brothers? Hah! Animation! I knew you wouldn’t fail me! Let’s see….The Emperor’s New School? Ok, don’t be too hasty to judge, Kevin. After all, you really liked The Emperor’s New Groove. (30 minutes later) Ok, that wasn’t too bad. Kronk was pretty funny.
Quick check back with NBC….Nope, still the Today show. If I remember right, that damn thing is two hours long so there’s no point checking back with NBC until, at least, 9:00am. Hmm, CBS is still showing Weekend Wake Up! Well…yay them. Ok, then….back to ABC! The Replacements? Hmm, this isn’t based on that football movie with that thespian tour de force, Keanu Reeves, is it? Well, let’s take a look at it ‘cause…. (5 viewing minutes later) ….’cause I have to pass this channel on my way to another one. HEY!! What about WUTV!? The home of Astro Boy, Prince Planet, Ultraman, Battle of the Planets (G-Force), and the time honored Star Blazers! Ok, so what do we have here…Archie’s Weird Mysteries? Look, the Archies were, at best, a mediocre cartoon back in the day. And the only mystery with Archie is that he’s had two FINE-ASS women chasing him for what….four or more decades…and never tapped either of them! Supports my theory of Archie’s unrequited homosexual love for Jughead. They should move the whole gang out of Riverdale and drop them in Rivendell ‘cause Gimli would take Betty & Veronica into his bed chamber and knock something loose down there….he’d totally RUIN those chicks!!
Ok, it’s now 8:00am. The Today show is still going strong on NBC. On CBS I have a difficult decision…. Care Bears: Adventures in Care-A-Lot followed by Strawberry Shortcake. I lost the remote so I have a difficult decision on whether I want to keep looking for it or actually get up off of the couch and go over to change the channel! Here’s the real killer! On ABC there’s Good Morning America: Weekend Edition, which goes to 9:00am followed by A.M. Buffalo, then House Smarts, then back-to-back episodes of That’s So Raven, then Hannah Montana, and the torture ends with Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Great! More canned filth from Disney….Nazi douche bags! Which finds us at high noon where ABC launches into the delightful land of paid programming…You’re dead to me ABC!! DEAD!!
I was going to continue on with the rest of the morning up until noon when the kids should be outside playing by then anyways. However, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. NBC is pretty much adult programs until 11:00am where they have Jane and the Dragon. I’ve seen this show before. The story lines and dialogue are actually passable at times, however, there’s something in the CGI’d movement of the characters that makes you want to kick them until they’re all dead! CBS has Cake, Horseland (don’t ask me I don’t know but I don’t need to know), then Sushi Pack, Dino Squad, and Teen Kids News. YES….Yes, they’re every bit as awful as they sound. That leaves WUTV. Unfortunately, the fare on WUTV is little better than 30 minute animated commercial slots to sell the toys and cards that these cartoons are based upon. Remember, when cartoons use to come out first and then the related merchandise would follow….not the other way around? Let me give you an example. Between 8:00am and 9:00am are back-to-back episodes of a cartoon called Viva Piñata. Viva Piñata is a game for the Xbox 360 that eventually spawned (pretty accurate description) this cartoon of the same name. Here’s a brief synopsis:
In a garden on Piñata Island, a multitude of happy, colorful Piñata species live, frolic, dance, and grow. The goal of the piñatas is to fill themselves with candy, so they can be chosen by Piñata Central to entertain at birthday parties or retirement parties and other special celebrations. The piñatas have their own gardens and love to party. Each species is a blend of an animal and a sweet type of food.
It is here in the garden, among the burrowing Profitamole, the bovine Moozipan and the tree-swinging Cinnamonkey that we will find a small band of Piñata friends that have known one another since they were children when they first came to the garden.
Being a piñata means something different for piñatas. Some Piñatas can’t wait to reach their maximum candy level so they can leave the Piñata Factory over and over again, bringing joy to children and partygoers all over the world. Others are not happy about the prospect of being shipped off to a strange place where happy children in festive hats hang them from a tree, bludgeon them until their limbs fall off, and devour their innards. Still others physically train for the parties as if they were off to the Olympic Games — hardening their bodies to create a challenge for the children clamoring to get at their candy.
Why is it that Piñata Island is the only place in the world Piñatas can be found? Even the Piñatas don’t really know—but with so much happening in the garden, what with weird new Piñatas arriving all the time, crazed black-market Piñata poachers trying to muscle in on Piñata Central action, mysteries to solve, violent garden pests known as sours to contend with, and constant opportunities to dance—who has time to worry about it?
Yes, this is for real! Yes, I looked this shit up! No, I’m not feeling all that proud of myself at the moment! I feel the need to get into the shower and scrub my skin until it bleeds!!
Anyways, my point is that, Saturday Mornings are no longer the brief escape from the normal woes that accompany childhood. There’s nothing to look forward to in regards to Saturday Morning Cartoons. Can they still be found on cable? Of course, but that taints it somehow. I dunno why, it just does. Kind of like chasing that inexpressible dream that was out there somewhere but time has passed it by. Cartoons have no substance nowadays. Kids walk away from them with absolutely nothing or some cheesy lesson that their parents should have taught them in the first place. Cartoons are entertainment and an escape and even an enrichment! There are those who would say to me, “Aww, c’mon! Look at what you watched! How are you gonna tell me that, after watching cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny & Daffy Duck, that you came away with anything more than the kids watching Pokemon & Yu-Gi-Oh?” Easy! Bugs Bunny & Daffy Duck were my first exposure to Beethoven, Mozart, Rossini, Wagner, and many other classical composers. Hell, Daffy even showed me that you don’t always win. Sometimes life just plain sucks but you rebound and come back next time.
I guess I just got overly excited at the prospect of spending a quiet Saturday morning watching cartoons for a change. I’m serious….I was REALLY looking forward to this last night as I went to bed, each time I got up in the night to pee, and when my alarm clock this morning was a cardinal perched on the hemlock right outside my bedroom window singing in the gentle morning rain. This all came crashing down on me when I realized that the days of broadcast television’s weekly high point, the Saturday Morning Cartoons, a part of my childhood was gone. Ya know what? That just plain sucks. I guess I’ll just have to stand back up, brush the dust off, and move onto something else I really like.
Kevin
It's 7:00am on a Saturday morning. Daina won't get back from Portland until this Monday morning, so I figured that I'd visit an old friend.... Saturday Morning Cartoons. Only.... my friend wasn't there. Oh, there was something for kids 5 and under on PBS but that's ok. Long has PBS been the venue for the more junior execs of the Saturday Morning living room. Sesame Street, The Electric Company, The Great Space Coaster, etc. That's fine. I always believed the shortest of the shorties need orientation programs before they can understand the complexity of navigating the vast array of the more advanced viewing fare that they will face on Saturday Mornings. Rather than spend my time warming up with PBS, I decided to go right to the powerhouses.... NBC, CBS, and the venerable ABC. Now you're talkin'! These are the titans of Saturday Mornings! Who could escape their black hole strength pull on the eyes and minds of millions of Saturday Morning viewers across this great nation of ours.... who’d want to?
Ok, let’s just work up the channels then. NBC…Nbc…nbc… ???? Let’s check this remote to see if I’m on the right channel because this is the Today show. Hold on a second. The Today show DOES air on NBC! What the….!? Ok, let’s go to CBS then…. What the hell is Weekend Wake Up!? I’m already awake! I don’t need an hour-long program to tell me that!! Ok, ABC then! Good ol’ ABC! You won’t fail me! Long have you been the mightiest bastion of Saturday Morning Cartoondom! Who could match your unrivaled power when you drew the mighty sword of Warner Brothers? Hah! Animation! I knew you wouldn’t fail me! Let’s see….The Emperor’s New School? Ok, don’t be too hasty to judge, Kevin. After all, you really liked The Emperor’s New Groove. (30 minutes later) Ok, that wasn’t too bad. Kronk was pretty funny.
Quick check back with NBC….Nope, still the Today show. If I remember right, that damn thing is two hours long so there’s no point checking back with NBC until, at least, 9:00am. Hmm, CBS is still showing Weekend Wake Up! Well…yay them. Ok, then….back to ABC! The Replacements? Hmm, this isn’t based on that football movie with that thespian tour de force, Keanu Reeves, is it? Well, let’s take a look at it ‘cause…. (5 viewing minutes later) ….’cause I have to pass this channel on my way to another one. HEY!! What about WUTV!? The home of Astro Boy, Prince Planet, Ultraman, Battle of the Planets (G-Force), and the time honored Star Blazers! Ok, so what do we have here…Archie’s Weird Mysteries? Look, the Archies were, at best, a mediocre cartoon back in the day. And the only mystery with Archie is that he’s had two FINE-ASS women chasing him for what….four or more decades…and never tapped either of them! Supports my theory of Archie’s unrequited homosexual love for Jughead. They should move the whole gang out of Riverdale and drop them in Rivendell ‘cause Gimli would take Betty & Veronica into his bed chamber and knock something loose down there….he’d totally RUIN those chicks!!
Ok, it’s now 8:00am. The Today show is still going strong on NBC. On CBS I have a difficult decision…. Care Bears: Adventures in Care-A-Lot followed by Strawberry Shortcake. I lost the remote so I have a difficult decision on whether I want to keep looking for it or actually get up off of the couch and go over to change the channel! Here’s the real killer! On ABC there’s Good Morning America: Weekend Edition, which goes to 9:00am followed by A.M. Buffalo, then House Smarts, then back-to-back episodes of That’s So Raven, then Hannah Montana, and the torture ends with Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Great! More canned filth from Disney….Nazi douche bags! Which finds us at high noon where ABC launches into the delightful land of paid programming…You’re dead to me ABC!! DEAD!!
I was going to continue on with the rest of the morning up until noon when the kids should be outside playing by then anyways. However, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. NBC is pretty much adult programs until 11:00am where they have Jane and the Dragon. I’ve seen this show before. The story lines and dialogue are actually passable at times, however, there’s something in the CGI’d movement of the characters that makes you want to kick them until they’re all dead! CBS has Cake, Horseland (don’t ask me I don’t know but I don’t need to know), then Sushi Pack, Dino Squad, and Teen Kids News. YES….Yes, they’re every bit as awful as they sound. That leaves WUTV. Unfortunately, the fare on WUTV is little better than 30 minute animated commercial slots to sell the toys and cards that these cartoons are based upon. Remember, when cartoons use to come out first and then the related merchandise would follow….not the other way around? Let me give you an example. Between 8:00am and 9:00am are back-to-back episodes of a cartoon called Viva Piñata. Viva Piñata is a game for the Xbox 360 that eventually spawned (pretty accurate description) this cartoon of the same name. Here’s a brief synopsis:
In a garden on Piñata Island, a multitude of happy, colorful Piñata species live, frolic, dance, and grow. The goal of the piñatas is to fill themselves with candy, so they can be chosen by Piñata Central to entertain at birthday parties or retirement parties and other special celebrations. The piñatas have their own gardens and love to party. Each species is a blend of an animal and a sweet type of food.
It is here in the garden, among the burrowing Profitamole, the bovine Moozipan and the tree-swinging Cinnamonkey that we will find a small band of Piñata friends that have known one another since they were children when they first came to the garden.
Being a piñata means something different for piñatas. Some Piñatas can’t wait to reach their maximum candy level so they can leave the Piñata Factory over and over again, bringing joy to children and partygoers all over the world. Others are not happy about the prospect of being shipped off to a strange place where happy children in festive hats hang them from a tree, bludgeon them until their limbs fall off, and devour their innards. Still others physically train for the parties as if they were off to the Olympic Games — hardening their bodies to create a challenge for the children clamoring to get at their candy.
Why is it that Piñata Island is the only place in the world Piñatas can be found? Even the Piñatas don’t really know—but with so much happening in the garden, what with weird new Piñatas arriving all the time, crazed black-market Piñata poachers trying to muscle in on Piñata Central action, mysteries to solve, violent garden pests known as sours to contend with, and constant opportunities to dance—who has time to worry about it?
Yes, this is for real! Yes, I looked this shit up! No, I’m not feeling all that proud of myself at the moment! I feel the need to get into the shower and scrub my skin until it bleeds!!
Anyways, my point is that, Saturday Mornings are no longer the brief escape from the normal woes that accompany childhood. There’s nothing to look forward to in regards to Saturday Morning Cartoons. Can they still be found on cable? Of course, but that taints it somehow. I dunno why, it just does. Kind of like chasing that inexpressible dream that was out there somewhere but time has passed it by. Cartoons have no substance nowadays. Kids walk away from them with absolutely nothing or some cheesy lesson that their parents should have taught them in the first place. Cartoons are entertainment and an escape and even an enrichment! There are those who would say to me, “Aww, c’mon! Look at what you watched! How are you gonna tell me that, after watching cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny & Daffy Duck, that you came away with anything more than the kids watching Pokemon & Yu-Gi-Oh?” Easy! Bugs Bunny & Daffy Duck were my first exposure to Beethoven, Mozart, Rossini, Wagner, and many other classical composers. Hell, Daffy even showed me that you don’t always win. Sometimes life just plain sucks but you rebound and come back next time.
I guess I just got overly excited at the prospect of spending a quiet Saturday morning watching cartoons for a change. I’m serious….I was REALLY looking forward to this last night as I went to bed, each time I got up in the night to pee, and when my alarm clock this morning was a cardinal perched on the hemlock right outside my bedroom window singing in the gentle morning rain. This all came crashing down on me when I realized that the days of broadcast television’s weekly high point, the Saturday Morning Cartoons, a part of my childhood was gone. Ya know what? That just plain sucks. I guess I’ll just have to stand back up, brush the dust off, and move onto something else I really like.
Kevin
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Happy Anniversary, me!
On a completely unrelated note to my previous rant, today is the day I married Kevin. Details I remember:
It was insanely hot all week in Dallas, Texas, but the day of my wedding had a little rain in the morning, cooling things off to a nice 80 something. The sky was that beautiful clear blue and all clouds were gone by the time we got to the church.
Bikers came up and stared into the window of our limo at the reception before we got out. I offered to let them get in when I got out.
My parents invited TONS of their friends because I'm their only daughter and first born child, but most of the people that actually CAME were Kevin's and my friends.
Kevin Pohle, a friend of Kevin's and a groomsman, had his appendix removed a day before the wedding and couldn't be in it with us. Instead, we had Chris McDermott, the guy that Kevin and I met each other through. Kevin still made it, although he couldn't wear a tux. We took a pic of him showing us the bandage where they pulled the appendix out.
All my mom's brothers and sisters except for one made the wedding, and nearly all the cousins came as well. This was the first time in YEARS that we even came CLOSE.
My dad's father, who never made it to the wedding because he was bedridden, described my dress to my grandmother perfectly when she came home. The pictures of me in my wedding dress came MONTHS after he passed away.
I ate breakfast that morning. Kevin did NOT and informed the coordinator at the reception of this when she tried to get him to get up and do the first dance before he had his food.
I gave a happy war whoop as we left the chapel as husband and wife.
My dad made me laugh by telling me that Kevin's friend Joe had pretended to be looking for Kevin before the wedding, saying he'd seen Kevin peeling out of the parking lot earlier...
My bridesmaids sang "Going to the Chapel" to me.
My dad and I chose the same song for our dance together"(If I Could"), but didn't know it until right before. It made me cry...a LOT!
My brother was horrified at the thought of Kevin and I going upstairs for the honeymoon night.
The flower girl (my niece-to-be at the time) florally assaulted her great aunt with a handful of fake rose petals when she got to her pew in the church.
My dad got mad at the limo company for charging us for the full night when we just wanted to pay for the drive from the church to the reception hall. So, when the guy got ready to drive away, my dad said "Oh, no...we have you for the whole NIGHT, sir." Then he came in and announced to the entire room that they would be doing limo tours to Dallas and back all night. There were folks who never got to ride in a limo and never saw downtown Dallas at night that got to see BOTH, thanks to dad's ingenuity.
Anyway, all this only serves to remind me that my relationship with Kevin these past nine years (and even with many of you) is something that's remained a stalwart constant for me. My wedding day still sits in my mind as one of those great moments that I have no idea what I did to deserve, but am MIGHTY glad that happened. While I can look at those around me and see how they've changed, I'm far more amazed at how much things between Kevin and I have stayed the same. Despite having been around me for 9 years, he still seems to see me as his fair maiden (which is only fitting, as I see him as my deserving hero!).
Here's to another 9 years of marital bliss (bliss = all the stuff that comes with a real relationship, like arguments over street directions and laughing during romantic moments, illness, craziness and the other -nesses that happen in the real world)!
It was insanely hot all week in Dallas, Texas, but the day of my wedding had a little rain in the morning, cooling things off to a nice 80 something. The sky was that beautiful clear blue and all clouds were gone by the time we got to the church.
Bikers came up and stared into the window of our limo at the reception before we got out. I offered to let them get in when I got out.
My parents invited TONS of their friends because I'm their only daughter and first born child, but most of the people that actually CAME were Kevin's and my friends.
Kevin Pohle, a friend of Kevin's and a groomsman, had his appendix removed a day before the wedding and couldn't be in it with us. Instead, we had Chris McDermott, the guy that Kevin and I met each other through. Kevin still made it, although he couldn't wear a tux. We took a pic of him showing us the bandage where they pulled the appendix out.
All my mom's brothers and sisters except for one made the wedding, and nearly all the cousins came as well. This was the first time in YEARS that we even came CLOSE.
My dad's father, who never made it to the wedding because he was bedridden, described my dress to my grandmother perfectly when she came home. The pictures of me in my wedding dress came MONTHS after he passed away.
I ate breakfast that morning. Kevin did NOT and informed the coordinator at the reception of this when she tried to get him to get up and do the first dance before he had his food.
I gave a happy war whoop as we left the chapel as husband and wife.
My dad made me laugh by telling me that Kevin's friend Joe had pretended to be looking for Kevin before the wedding, saying he'd seen Kevin peeling out of the parking lot earlier...
My bridesmaids sang "Going to the Chapel" to me.
My dad and I chose the same song for our dance together"(If I Could"), but didn't know it until right before. It made me cry...a LOT!
My brother was horrified at the thought of Kevin and I going upstairs for the honeymoon night.
The flower girl (my niece-to-be at the time) florally assaulted her great aunt with a handful of fake rose petals when she got to her pew in the church.
My dad got mad at the limo company for charging us for the full night when we just wanted to pay for the drive from the church to the reception hall. So, when the guy got ready to drive away, my dad said "Oh, no...we have you for the whole NIGHT, sir." Then he came in and announced to the entire room that they would be doing limo tours to Dallas and back all night. There were folks who never got to ride in a limo and never saw downtown Dallas at night that got to see BOTH, thanks to dad's ingenuity.
Anyway, all this only serves to remind me that my relationship with Kevin these past nine years (and even with many of you) is something that's remained a stalwart constant for me. My wedding day still sits in my mind as one of those great moments that I have no idea what I did to deserve, but am MIGHTY glad that happened. While I can look at those around me and see how they've changed, I'm far more amazed at how much things between Kevin and I have stayed the same. Despite having been around me for 9 years, he still seems to see me as his fair maiden (which is only fitting, as I see him as my deserving hero!).
Here's to another 9 years of marital bliss (bliss = all the stuff that comes with a real relationship, like arguments over street directions and laughing during romantic moments, illness, craziness and the other -nesses that happen in the real world)!
My Blue Period
So, I came into school two days ago and the custodian told me they were going to repaint my room and the faculty room.
Now, before you get all excited for me, let me give you some background. From my first year in 1995 up until last year, I had a futon bunkbed in my room. This bed was my reading center, my reward for kids who did homework 6 days in a row and basically, the one thing that I've kept as my own in the many moves I had to make (2 states and about 6 different classrooms). I had even decided if the Highlander and I had a child, the bed would come home for them (silly, I know, since we'dve just gotten new stuff, but still!).
Last year, my principal told me I'd have to get rid of it because it was a fire hazard.
I was DEVASTATED. I begged him to let me keep it, but he said it had to be done, district rules. Honestly, I actually CRIED bitter tears in front of him because the one unifying piece of my educational domain was going to have to go. It also meant yet another piece of the babymaking project was going up in smoke. I ended up giving it to one of my students that had come a long way that year and felt, in some way, like it had practically gone to our "child".
Anyway, I went through a minor grieving period in which I needed to refocus myself into a new project. As a young teacher, I had always wanted to paint my walls black and put glow in the dark stars on them. As age mellowed me, I settled on painting it a deep blue one day. With the bunkbed agony still fresh, I suddenly had a way of reclaiming my domain. I figured it could be a sort of "rebound" bunkbed for me. I asked my principal if it was okay with him and he agreed I could paint it any way I wanted.
So, I chose the color (which is actually the same blue as the school shirt I'm wearing in my picture), bought all the materials and I spent 2 weeks on and off in the summer painting it with some of my kids. The room is EASILY 14 feet tall, so I had to stand on furniture on tiptoe with a roller for the whole upper half to make it work. This was also a second story room in a NY building with NO AC in the summertime, so there were days I thought I might lose it to heatstroke. When we finished, we signed our names in an inconspicuous corner and once again, my room was my own. All year long, people talked about how cool it looked and how it brightened things up, etc. Even my principal came around and admitted it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be when I said a "darker blue".
Oh, and an important sidenote: as I went around the district for different meetings that year, I noticed that other folks had sofas, chairs, pillows and all kinds of other stuff that would be considered a MUCH bigger fire hazard than my metal pipe bunkbed with the one futon mattress and one twin mattress. Even the teacher next door got her wooden swing from downstairs where it was going to be thrown out and brought it back into her room. I was the ONLY person who had to get rid of my "fire hazard". Hmmm...
This bring us back to the moment that our custodian informed me that the principal had told him to repaint the room. The custodian added quietly that "he" (pointing to the office) had NEVER liked the color. Only our custodian knew that this was basically a covert operation, since no one is in the building for the summer. I received no calls or messages...if I hadn't been in the building to pick up some summer school stuff, I would have come back to off white walls.
So, I charged downstairs, ready to rationally demand that my room NOT be changed, not when I had spent my own time and money on the whole thing. I planned to go over his head to the union or the superintendent if need be, since no one else's room was being painted My principal told me the same thing from last year...that the district wanted it redone and there was nothing he could do...
Things get a little fuzzy for me at this point, so let me give you more background while the me of 2 days ago slowly goes to the mental zoo!
For various reasons, my family and I moved quite a bit. I went to 11 different schools in my educational career (4 elementary, 1 middle, 3 high school and 3 colleges) and over the span of my life, have lived in 18 different houses/apartments across 6 different states and done more jobs than I care to count. I've even TAUGHT in 3 different districts over 2 states and done more than one program/grade level in each one. As you can imagine, I have some REAL deep seated issues with permanence and stability...!
So, how can I describe the conversation in the office AFTER my principal confirmed the repainting story? Picture this: tell a 6 year old that they're going to Disneyworld. Promise them this will happen, repeatedly for like a WEEK. Show them every Disney movie ever made in that week. Throw them a Disney theme going away party with all their friends. Pack up the car, get Mickey ears to wear on the ride down and even strap the kid into the backseat and turn the car on. Then tell them you can't take them after all, that you just made it all up. Now make that kid a 38 year old black woman that already has had to give up an item she treasured for the same reason. Oh, and did I also mention that my monthly visitor dropped in just TODAY?
So, back up to two days of PMS ago...!
I remember...LOTS of crying and hysterical breathing. I remember eschewing tissues for the backs of my arms. I remember bringing up very salient and logical debate points such as "but you SAID!!! You TOTALLY SAID I COULD!!!" and "You don't even CARE, you're just being MEAN for no REASON!" and "Why? Why would you DO this to me? What did I DO? Did I not TEACH right?" I definitely remember saying something to the effect of it being HIM that didn't like it, not the district and that he was "sneakin' around". I think I even might have said "It's like you're not my FRIEND no more!!!" I was basically just like the parents from this Burger King commercial, only a lot louder.
The one thing I know for sure was that my principal was in NO way ready for this from me. I'm the tomboy of my building, the easygoing one that could care less about fashion sense, cute stuff or anything related to interior design. I NEVER cry because I hate that place that crying takes me to and I hate that it wins arguments that SHOULD have been won with words.
This caught him (and, frankly, ME) totally by surprise. After all, he was all geared up for an argument, a man-to-man talk. Once the mental revolution began, he was able to get out one coherent sentence, which was "Well, I'm not in the habit of taking things from people." Everything else was cut off by my insane rant through the Halls of Fairness (where I believe I might have flung feces, lit the ancient tomes on fire and written the words "NO GOAL" in bright red lipstick on the statue of Blind Justice).
Anyway, 2 days and a sinus cold later (MAN, did I cry HARD!), my room is NOT being repainted. I've fully worked through my issues (translation: had ice cream and a hug from Kevin) and I believe my principal and I have reached a new level of communication and understanding ( despite the restraining order)!
D.
Now, before you get all excited for me, let me give you some background. From my first year in 1995 up until last year, I had a futon bunkbed in my room. This bed was my reading center, my reward for kids who did homework 6 days in a row and basically, the one thing that I've kept as my own in the many moves I had to make (2 states and about 6 different classrooms). I had even decided if the Highlander and I had a child, the bed would come home for them (silly, I know, since we'dve just gotten new stuff, but still!).
Last year, my principal told me I'd have to get rid of it because it was a fire hazard.
I was DEVASTATED. I begged him to let me keep it, but he said it had to be done, district rules. Honestly, I actually CRIED bitter tears in front of him because the one unifying piece of my educational domain was going to have to go. It also meant yet another piece of the babymaking project was going up in smoke. I ended up giving it to one of my students that had come a long way that year and felt, in some way, like it had practically gone to our "child".
Anyway, I went through a minor grieving period in which I needed to refocus myself into a new project. As a young teacher, I had always wanted to paint my walls black and put glow in the dark stars on them. As age mellowed me, I settled on painting it a deep blue one day. With the bunkbed agony still fresh, I suddenly had a way of reclaiming my domain. I figured it could be a sort of "rebound" bunkbed for me. I asked my principal if it was okay with him and he agreed I could paint it any way I wanted.
So, I chose the color (which is actually the same blue as the school shirt I'm wearing in my picture), bought all the materials and I spent 2 weeks on and off in the summer painting it with some of my kids. The room is EASILY 14 feet tall, so I had to stand on furniture on tiptoe with a roller for the whole upper half to make it work. This was also a second story room in a NY building with NO AC in the summertime, so there were days I thought I might lose it to heatstroke. When we finished, we signed our names in an inconspicuous corner and once again, my room was my own. All year long, people talked about how cool it looked and how it brightened things up, etc. Even my principal came around and admitted it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be when I said a "darker blue".
Oh, and an important sidenote: as I went around the district for different meetings that year, I noticed that other folks had sofas, chairs, pillows and all kinds of other stuff that would be considered a MUCH bigger fire hazard than my metal pipe bunkbed with the one futon mattress and one twin mattress. Even the teacher next door got her wooden swing from downstairs where it was going to be thrown out and brought it back into her room. I was the ONLY person who had to get rid of my "fire hazard". Hmmm...
This bring us back to the moment that our custodian informed me that the principal had told him to repaint the room. The custodian added quietly that "he" (pointing to the office) had NEVER liked the color. Only our custodian knew that this was basically a covert operation, since no one is in the building for the summer. I received no calls or messages...if I hadn't been in the building to pick up some summer school stuff, I would have come back to off white walls.
So, I charged downstairs, ready to rationally demand that my room NOT be changed, not when I had spent my own time and money on the whole thing. I planned to go over his head to the union or the superintendent if need be, since no one else's room was being painted My principal told me the same thing from last year...that the district wanted it redone and there was nothing he could do...
Things get a little fuzzy for me at this point, so let me give you more background while the me of 2 days ago slowly goes to the mental zoo!
For various reasons, my family and I moved quite a bit. I went to 11 different schools in my educational career (4 elementary, 1 middle, 3 high school and 3 colleges) and over the span of my life, have lived in 18 different houses/apartments across 6 different states and done more jobs than I care to count. I've even TAUGHT in 3 different districts over 2 states and done more than one program/grade level in each one. As you can imagine, I have some REAL deep seated issues with permanence and stability...!
So, how can I describe the conversation in the office AFTER my principal confirmed the repainting story? Picture this: tell a 6 year old that they're going to Disneyworld. Promise them this will happen, repeatedly for like a WEEK. Show them every Disney movie ever made in that week. Throw them a Disney theme going away party with all their friends. Pack up the car, get Mickey ears to wear on the ride down and even strap the kid into the backseat and turn the car on. Then tell them you can't take them after all, that you just made it all up. Now make that kid a 38 year old black woman that already has had to give up an item she treasured for the same reason. Oh, and did I also mention that my monthly visitor dropped in just TODAY?
So, back up to two days of PMS ago...!
I remember...LOTS of crying and hysterical breathing. I remember eschewing tissues for the backs of my arms. I remember bringing up very salient and logical debate points such as "but you SAID!!! You TOTALLY SAID I COULD!!!" and "You don't even CARE, you're just being MEAN for no REASON!" and "Why? Why would you DO this to me? What did I DO? Did I not TEACH right?" I definitely remember saying something to the effect of it being HIM that didn't like it, not the district and that he was "sneakin' around". I think I even might have said "It's like you're not my FRIEND no more!!!" I was basically just like the parents from this Burger King commercial, only a lot louder.
The one thing I know for sure was that my principal was in NO way ready for this from me. I'm the tomboy of my building, the easygoing one that could care less about fashion sense, cute stuff or anything related to interior design. I NEVER cry because I hate that place that crying takes me to and I hate that it wins arguments that SHOULD have been won with words.
This caught him (and, frankly, ME) totally by surprise. After all, he was all geared up for an argument, a man-to-man talk. Once the mental revolution began, he was able to get out one coherent sentence, which was "Well, I'm not in the habit of taking things from people." Everything else was cut off by my insane rant through the Halls of Fairness (where I believe I might have flung feces, lit the ancient tomes on fire and written the words "NO GOAL" in bright red lipstick on the statue of Blind Justice).
Anyway, 2 days and a sinus cold later (MAN, did I cry HARD!), my room is NOT being repainted. I've fully worked through my issues (translation: had ice cream and a hug from Kevin) and I believe my principal and I have reached a new level of communication and understanding ( despite the restraining order)!
D.
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