Yesterday was jam-packed with excitement. The tennis tournament fundraiser for Michael's school team was yesterday morning, and I was up and in the shower by 6:45 - which NEVER happens on a Saturday, normally.
I don't know why I didn't think to take some photos, but I was too busy manning the sign-in table and running the prize raffle.
It was COLD - I had on two shirts and a heavy sweater, and Michael got my stadium blanket out of the car, thank goodness! It didn't warm up until just before we left.
It was a nice group of folks who came out to play. I have found that tennis players, whatever their age, are almost always good folks, mannerly. I appreciate that.
Afterwards, we picked up sandwiches for lunch, then went to the home of a friend of mine who is downsizing from a house to an apartment. She had a pingpong table she was giving away, and Michael and his friend Clay had a blast playing with it:
well, this was when they were still trying to figure out how to get the net on it. Clay's dad, who is an engineer, came over and got it set up in 5 minutes. Yay Stan!
My friend also had a Yoda figure that her kids had outgrown.
Michael and I put some batteries in him just before bed and listened to him talk. SO funny! He says a bunch of different things, wriggles his ears, and has facial expressions. Right now he is "asleep" - eyes closed. I am not a huge Star Wars fan or anything, but this little Yoda guy is a fun toy.
Today promises to be busy too - Mike has a tennis match, and then we have to buy groceries. At least it's a pretty day!
Today is a big day. The Lakeside Tennis Tournament [community fundraising event] is today, and that will eat up 1/2 - 2/3 of the day. This afternoon we are picking up a ping pong table a friend is giving us.
At some point, probably around 5, I will be extraordinarily tired.
I predict that dinner will likely be peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
I thought I had heard all the silly celebrity baby names in the universe - Apple, Moses, Suri, Kalel, Pilot, Jett, China etc. - but now Holly Madison has named her child Rainbow Aurora. It's not bad enough the kid has to grow up the illegitimate baby of a Playboy Bunny, but her name is RAINBOW. I hope they live in Los Angeles or Colorado where probably nobody will bat an eye. Here in Atlanta the child would have to learn to fight. And what if she wants to be a professional basketball player? Or a criminal defense attorney? Or a boxer? Poor kid.
I spent most of the day yesterday dealing with our washing machine needing to be repaired. Don't buy a GE washing machine. Dang thing has plastic parts that wear out in a mere 7 years.
We have a fridge in the garage that is 22 years old and works FINE. Looks old and grody but it works. [sorta like me, LOL]
The last part of the day found me cuddling Coco and watching a movie by myself. Michael was not a happy camper and refused to say why, and went to bed. [ah, the joys of parenting a teenager....]
CUDDLING LITERALLY KILLS DEPRESSION, RELIEVES ANXIETY AND STRENGTHENS THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
A cyber friend of mine who lives in Australia posted yesterday a photo of herself at a book signing for The Divinity of Dogs, and in her honor I am posting a photo of my daughter and Coco:
Wow, I was really in a mood yesterday when I blogged, I see. Sometimes I just get on a roll and I can't stop writing, particularly when I am ticked off.
Today, March 8, is International Women's Day. It's a really big deal in Russia. Got into a contretemps on Facebook last night with a friend who applauded women for taking a big part in the Russian Revolution. Since I have seen communism's effects up close and my own daughter has suffered some of the effects of it, albeit indirectly, I cannot condone it. Yep, the Czar was an idiot and a terrible ruler, but then look at all the people who died [millions] under Stalin?!?
Michael and I talked about it last night.
It's all about fairness. What system of government is most fair? Not communism. The lack of personal freedom there is totally unfair. Then again, we live in a Republic and we still have a lot of unfairnness here.
When my mother started teaching in 1956, she had already faced blatant discrimination. She had worked at Sears in Atlanta and been rejected for the management training program because "There's no reason to train you for management when you'll just get married and quit." She worked a lot on the floor at Sears, and she was required to wear 3 inch spiked heel shoes. Required. [She now has a lot of circulation problems in her legs.]
My dad decided early in their marriage, in 1957, to just pick up her paycheck. One day she didn't get her paycheck and when she asked the principal, and he said "Oh your husband said he will pick that up from now on." That was legal and accepted, and Mother couldn't do a thing about it.
When my mother got pregnant with my brother in 1959, she was forced to quit her job, because teachers couldn't be visibly pregnant and teach back then, in some states.
I don't recall ever being a target of blatant gender discrimination, but my career is not over yet. My mother has always told me stories, and when I heard her stories as a little girl, I got furious. Of course, I was already a tomboy, and keenly aware of boys' toys and clothes being more interesting and fun, usually.
I started reading MS Magazine when I was 10. Had a subscription for years.
In Russian orphanage culture, to this day, girls are STILL told, "Get a man!" and they are dressed very provocatively, just like most young Russian women. By American standards, they all look like hookers. I wish I were kidding. Russian social mores are right out of the 1950's.
Russian women always work, and they almost always do ALL of the childcare and household chores. Men aren't expected to even help.
Gender inequality is alive in asian countries as well, where they don't even pretend there is equality. Chinese and Indian female babies are still being aborted or abandoned at an alarming rate.
"Now, International Women's Day represents a movement that is for every
woman and girl, no matter where they live. This year, Malala Yousafzai
became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize nominee in history by risking her
life for the cause of universal girls' education."
I come from a line of strong women on both sides of the family, and I am proud of that. I wish I could've passed on the strength and wisdom to my daughter, but unfortunately she is in the Russian mode right now, totally dependent on her boyfriend.
So I am glad it's International Women's Day, but I am sorry that so many women in the world are still oppressed by men.My prayer today is for women to move forward more, and to be truly treated as equals one day soon, hopefully in my lifetime.
This is a link to one of my fave songs about female empowerment - AND it has a good beat and you can dance to it! You Go, girls!
"Liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say, I'm free. My ancestors couldn't. I can." - Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, 1939 movie
Some of my ancestors were French Huguenots. They were persecuted, tortured, and killed because they wanted to worship God as they decided, not as the government told them.They followed the teachings of John Calvin:
"Protestant
theologians such as Calvin taught that a universal priesthood of believers could find
salvation, not through the interventions of a church, but through individual faith alone. The Bible was translated for the first time into
the vernacular languages and the new faith was based on the study and individual
interpretation of the Bible."
Several of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution. They fought, and put their lives at risk, because they thought freedom was important. They didn't want to be subject to the whims of a foreign king who had never set foot on American soil. They wanted to govern themselves.
They wanted their children to be FREE.
Despite the historical inaccuracies, or Mel Gibson's character flaws, I love the movie Braveheart. Some of my other ancestors fought with the real William Wallace, I am sure. I am descended from a number of Scottish clans.
This is my favorite speech from that movie:
"You've come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What will you do without freedom? Will you fight? Fight and you may die. Run and you may live, at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance - just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!"
Damn right.
Senator Rand Paul stood on his feet and exhausted himself filibustering yesterday, for one simple reason: FREEDOM.
Americans have the right to DUE PROCESS. We have the right to a fair trial. We have these rights because our ancestors decided long ago that it was important to not be dragged out of your house in the middle of the night and killed because some despotic king didn't like you.
President Obama or Eric Holder could have ended the filibuster yesterday by simply confirming that American citizens will not be targeted by drones, on American soil.They didn't.
Here's what Senator Paul said about the president, according to CNN:
"He's a politician," Paul said. "He was elected by a majority, but
the majority doesn't get to decide who we execute. We have a process for
deciding this. We have courts for deciding this, to allow one man to
accuse you in secret, you never get notified you have been accused."
He continued: "Your notification is the buzz of the propellers on the
drone as it flies overhead in the seconds before you're killed."
Doesn't this scare anybody but me?? Why isn't the news media talking about this?
How much do you even know about drone strikes? I started doing some digging because I was only vaguely aware of drones until recently. I kinda thought well, if it saves sending American soldiers overseas to die, and it saves money, and it only targets really bad guys.... OK?
John Brennan, who is getting ready to head up the CIA now, says it's "exceedingly rare" for drones to kill innocent people. The article referenced above discusses the findings of an exhaustive study of drone strikes:
"TBIJ reports that from June 2004 through mid-September 2012, available
data indicate that drone strikes killed 2,562 - 3,325 people in
Pakistan, of whom 474 - 881 were civilians, including 176 children. TBIJ
reports that these strikes also injured an additional 1,228 - 1,362
individuals," according to the Stanford/NYU study.
We aren't at war with Pakistan. Congress has never approved or declared a war with that country. Yet we are killing innocent people there with drones.
So WHO is to decide if an American is posing a threat to security bad enough to justify a drone strike? Eric Holder? John Brennan? President Obama?
If this doesn't scare you, it should.
And if one of those guys decided YOU are a threat and sends a drone to kill you, without warning, without due process, how will you feel about this THEN??
I'm going to admit something difficult: I kinda like Bruno Mars. It's the only way in which I almost kinda sorta might qualify as a "cool" mom.Some of his music is derivative of Sting, the Beatles, etc. but I can live with that.
HOWEVER: will SOMEBODY teach Bruno how to write a song lyric that's grammatically correct?
I dropped off Michael at school today and listened to this song, "When I Was Your Man" on the way home. I like the song. It's simple and heartfelt and has a nice melody. But my inner English major was mortified upon hearing,
"...should have gave you all my hours when I had the chance"
"SHOULD HAVE GAVE YOU??"
No Bruno, SHOULD HAVE GIVEN YOU.
"Take you to every party..."
No, Bruno. SHOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU.
"Give you all his hours..."
No. He GIVES you all his hours.
AAAARGH!!! Our kids are listening to this and learning the words!!
Dude, if you're going to write an entire song in the past perfect tense, for heaven's sake write correct English!! Here's a clip with the lyrics. Listen, dig it, and then Tweet Bruno or write him or whatever and tell the guy to have his lyrics proofread by someone!
Now, I didn't watch the Grammys but when I saw this clip of Bruno joined onstage by Sting I thought, what a fun song. Add in the Marleys, and that's a lot of talent on one stage. [Rihanna was also there, but she irritates me no end for staying with the abusive and disgusting Chris Brown, providing a TERRIBLE example for young girls everywhere.]
We are a little slow in getting folks signed up for our tennis tournament, and it's a huge fundraiser for my son's tennis team, so here is more information, below.
Michael asked me in the car on the way to school today, "What are you going to DO today, Mom?" Of course I was tempted to say "Lie on the couch and watch TV!" but I didn't. I said "Well, I've got to write ___ and ___ and ___ and run to the bank, and pay bills, and help Granny..."
"Wow. That's a lot."
So even though I am not going to an office right now, I am not sitting around doing nothing all day. Far from it.
I do have to point out something funny I saw yesterday on the way back from driving Michael to tennis practice.
Yes, somebody got mad at their potty and put it out near the mailbox. I know there is a story there, but I don't know what it is... LOL
I don't think DeKalb County will pick that up, though. So I'm curious how many days it will sit there before they haul it off?! At Home Depot there are issues all the time with people USING the potties on display, to the extent they have to post signs now saying DON'T USE THIS - FOR DISPLAY ONLY! LOL
When I dropped him off for tennis, I was listening to NPR and I heard a story about people in Great Britain being freaked out at finding traces of horsemeat. In case you didn't know about the European horse issue, this article will bring you up to speed: Battle over blame after horsemeat found in beef products came out a couple of weeks ago.
Michael was born in Kazakhstan. The NPR story was talking about how they view horsemeat as a delicacy, and they prefer it to beef or lamb, etc. In Kazakhstan, No Horror at Horsemeat. As I listened, I realized that I have been to the exact same open market they were talking about in the story, in Almaty. The reporter talked to a woman selling horsemeat, and he thought she would laugh when he told her how freaked out people are in Europe, but her reply surprised him. She simply said "The British people honor the horse, and they don't eat it. They haven't got the tradition."
True. They prefer their horses running after foxes and jumping over fences, not on the barbeque. Americans are the same.
Kazakhstan is a country made up of many nomadic tribes, though, and horses have been essential to their culture for over a thousand years. Kazakhstan is part of the Great Silk Road, between Europe and China, and once you know that, you understand a little of their national identity. The Russians have only been there, running things, for less than 200 years, and now the president is ethnic Kazakh and Russian influence is waning.
I remember seeing lengthy videos on one of my in-country plane rides featuring amazing feats of horsemanship, by people wearing colorful costumes, set to traditional music. I even tried some horsemeat, when a group of us Americans went out to eat one night. [Tasted like tough beef.]
This is what the NPR story explained about horses being essential to Kazakhstan and I like this:
"Those connections are centuries deep. The Kazakhs' forebears rode across
the steppes with Genghis Khan in the 13th century. The army moved with
alarming speed, thanks to its sturdy horses, with three or four per
warrior. Those horses also provided milk, blood and eventually meat to
fuel the army."
I know my vegetarian friends are cringing in horror. I love horses. I certainly don't ever plan to eat them again. You have to respect the fact that different cultures have different ways, though.
No time to do a long post, as there is a lot on the agenda today, but here's a recap of our world:
37 degrees this morning; DANG. Michael wore a shirt and a hoodie to school, and shorts.
Made an asparagus casserole for dinner last night. Haven't made one in years. I use canned asparagus, which I had quit buying, in favor of fresh of course. You can't really make it with fresh, though, and have it come out right. It's just a basic white sauce with cheese added, then you layer it with Ritz cracker crumbs and asparagus and sauce, and grated cheese on top.
My friend Paul came over to fix our computers Saturday night and we had a good visit. He has simplified his life and lives in a tiny house in Decatur with his wife and daughters, but he has a very low house payment, and he keeps chickens out back. I admire his lifestyle choices. He gives Michael advice a lot, which is fine, and sometimes funny. He spent 10 minutes telling Michael about the importance of good socks.
I gave him a box of quinoa. I had made some, but I didn't like it. I am not a quinoa kind of person. I have to live with that, but it's all good.
Trying to get more prizes for the Lakeside Tennis Team's fundraising event this Saturday, a community round-robin tennis tournament. So far it's been slow going with the whole thing, but it will come together later in the week, I am sure.
Need to get taxes done. I always try to do them early.
I hate cooking chicken. I have decided that the rotisserie chickens at Kroger are the way to go. Michael and I ate some of it for dinner last night [Mother had leftover shrimp] and it will go for at least one more meal, either a casserole or maybe chicken salad. So it's pretty economical, and I DON'T HAVE TO CLEAN RAW CHICKEN. Ick.
Tried to help Michael with a school project about Teddy Roosevelt yesterday and he was a real pill. And he only wanted to do the bare minimum on the project.
Got into a blue funk yesterday because Michael continued being a pill all afternoon - not just about the project, but about several things. It's just teenager stuff but I was not in a happy place for a while. He got a lecture this morning.
Went to sleep last night and slept like the dead. I have noticed that on days when there is a lot of emotional upheaval, I find myself physically exhausted by about 9 p.m. Same with being extra nice all day [like when I am hosting an event or party] - it tires me out to the max.
The schools are closed on Friday for a teacher furlough day. DeKalb County is such a mess. It's distressing.
My new hobby is looking at clever ideas to repurpose stuff, like this site: 30 Creative Ways to Repurpose. I don't always agree with what's done [anything involving books not being read bothers me] but it's always fun just to see what clever people can come up with. We actually have some of this going on in my house. We keep serving dishes in an armoire in the dining room, and my brother made me a shelf for my teapot collection some years ago out of an old drawer.
above is the armoire, with the flowers and stuff on top of it. I always forget to clean the tops of things because they aren't in my line of sight...
We are having our winter weather this weekend. I am FREEZING. Yesterday I was freezing all day. Michael even wore a coat when we went out. Now THAT is some winter y'all!
Today the HIGH is supposed to be 46. Usually that's the low, and the highs are in the 60's.
The folks all around us have gotten some snow this weekend. Up in Nashville, my friend Catherine posted a hysterically funny [and true] blog, The Blizzard of '13.
Michael slept until noon yesterday, and then we went and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant, and then went to the movie.
I love reading the Chinese astrology signs on the placemats at the Mandarin Palace. I am a Tiger, and I need to beware of the Monkey. I once worked for a terrible lawyer who was a Monkey! Wish I had known that ahead of time.
Michael's sign is the Rat and Mother is a Rooster. Maybe I should change the blog name to "Tiger Rat Rooster Chronicles." No quite as alliterative?
The movie we saw was Jack the Giant Slayer. I was going to see something else but then we looked at the trailer and decided it looked promising. It was highly entertaining. The effects are awesome. Nicholas Hoult was terrific. I kept thinking of him as a little boy in one of my fave movies, About a Boy, but he's all grown up now. Ewan Macgregor's role isn't all that exciting, but he does well with what he's got.
Forget what critics say. It's a fun movie and appropriate for all age kids, except really little ones who might have nightmares.
I found myself talking to Michael the other day about how to be a good tennis player, which is ironic since I love tennis but I am awful at it. My basic premise was sound, however.
When I was young, I took piano and voice lessons. I NEVER wanted to practice. I particularly hated scales. I imagine this is true for most kids and/or teens. (As I have gotten older and wiser I have realized the value of sheer repetitive practice.)
I can pick up a well-loved piano piece and stumble through it a couple of times, and by the third time my fingers "remember" and I can do it nearly perfectly, no matter how complicated the piece. My muscles remember.
I told Mike this because I was trying to emphasize the importance of practicing tennis shots. If he hits correctly over and over, his muscles will remember that.
What I see so often with him - and some of his buddies, too - is they want to hit like the professionals and they just slam the ball as hard as they can. A muscular 16 year old CAN slam the ball pretty darn hard. [Right outside the court. Then they lose that point.]
It's not about how HARD you hit, though. It's about how accurate you are. Tennis is a game of strategy, just like chess.
Young men get bored or frustrated, though, and they want to hit the ball AS.HARD.AS.POSSIBLE.
Michael's coach told him last night "Hit the ball SOFT." I knew exactly what he meant, and why he was saying that.
Michael keeps losing to kids who can't hit nearly as hard as he can, but they hit a lot more accurately.
I remember when I was about 17, trying to learn one of the most beautiful arias ever written, "Un Bel Di Vedremo," from Madame Butterfly. I practiced and practiced. I got pretty close to being able to sing it decently. I was wanting to sing it for my mother, as a surprise, as it's one of her favorite songs.
This is it, if you're interested:
Gorgeous, right? This is what angels must sing in heaven.
At 17, I thought I could sing ANYTHING. I was so full of myself.
I took the music to my voice teacher, Pop Hamilton, a huge bear of a man, very grandfatherly. I adored Pop. He had been teaching me voice for nearly 4 years.
He looked askance as I handed the sheet music to the accompaniest. I had sung maybe two bars when he shut me down.
"NO NO NO!" he shouted. He never shouted at me. Never. He proceeded to tell me in no uncertain terms how arrogant I was, how unskilled, how I had NO BUSINESS singing that aria.
I was in shock.
I COULD sing it, sort of, yes. But his point was that I shouldn't sing it. It was like handing a toddler a pair of scissors and telling him to do open heart surgery. I had only the vaguest hints of the real skills I needed to do justice to that song.
So Michael is learning a hard lesson with tennis. He can whack the hell out of a tennis ball. He has some mad skills. But are they enough to decimate his opponents the way Roger Federer can? No.
Pop also told me something that day I've never forgotten. I have a BIG voice. When I was young I had a nearly 4 octave range. It's hard to control that much voice. Some singers have maybe one octave, and they do great, because that's EASY to control.
Some kids play tennis and have a small amount of talent but they make the most of what they have. And they often win, if they practice.
Michael has a big talent. He has strength. He has power. He has a sharp mind. If he really tries, he can hit very accurately. His hand doesn't even matter - he has really improved his serve lately and I am very proud of him for doing that. [He puts the ball on top of his "short arm" and tosses it as high as possible.]
His mighty left hand and arm are incredibly powerful.
Should he be trying to play like an imitation Federer, at 16? Hell to the NO. I had no business trying to sing an aria at 17.
Being a good student - of music, of tennis, of anything - is SO important. Listening to your teacher or coach is SO important. I can understand that so much better now, at 50, than I could at 17.
I walked out of Pop's studio that day not feeling chastised and humbled, not vowing to do better. I walked out ANGRY. I was angry because I was arrogant. I could not see his point at all.
I wish/hope/pray that Michael can put aside his pride and his anger and actually LEARN. Maybe he needs a different teacher. Maybe I need to get on his case more about studying. I don't know.
I do know this. When I started college a year later, still full of arrogance, I got schooled QUICK. I started studying with voice teachers who were NOT impressed by me. They told me how out of control I was, how I needed to get over myself and WORK, how simply having talent was not enough. I was ticked off.
My sophomore year I switched schools and I simply stopped studying voice. Now I pretty much only sing in the shower or at church.
I don't wish that experience on my son.
I want him to love tennis, but to be humble enough to keep learning. I want him to play all his life - just for fun, if nothing else. It's grat exercise.
I don't want to see him just get angry and stop, though.
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