Hey Dawn

    Do you remember that time that we got on a jet and flew to Washington, DC because Jon Stewart invited you to come to that Sanity Rally and while we were there we walked into a store that billed itself as "The White House Gift Shop" and we both bought those commemorative posters and we decided that since I had the BIG purse we'd roll all four posters up together and I'd just hang on to them until we got home and then I would give your two posters to you?  And then do you remember how I never gave them to you? Well, today I decided that it's finally time to get your posters to you (before I lose them again) but since I've had them in my rolled-up possession since October 2010, I thought that it might be nice to put them in cute frames because I'm sure you would have had them framed by now and hanging in your house because they're Jon Stewart Sanity Rally Posters for goodness sake!!  And also because of the guilt - framing eases guilt.  I know this to be true because I tried it today and it worked for me. So, long story short, your [framed] posters are here at my house. We need to get together soon so that I can finally return them to you.  Give me a call. Or text me.  Your posters are ready!

http://adayinthelife-julie.blogspot.com/2010/11/sign-sign-everywhere-sign.html

Just Another Saturday Night

In case you can't read what's written in the photo above, it says

"CONTRACT you will do what I say for one year and not

complain about anything you have to do."

It's Saturday night and the children are downstairs watching a movie.

Child A is very involved in watching the movie.

Child B sees an opportunity and draws up a CONTRACT and asks Child A to sign.

Child A takes the CONTRACT and without reading it, almost signs said document. 

Child A decides that before signing, it might be best to read the document.

Child B insists loudly that Child A doesn't need to read it (!).  Child A just needs to sign it (!!).

Child A reads the CONTRACT.  Child A refuses to sign.

Child B crumples up the CONTRACT and laughs.  

This is how the children of attorneys pass their evenings.

Contracts and negotiations.

Child A may grow up to be a great attorney someday (although Joel hopes for better).

Child B has the makings of an evil genius.

Dear Family

     A Civil War interpreter came to speak to Sarah's class last week.  This led to a series of fun questions in the car that afternoon like "Mom, were you alive during the Civil War."  She was absolutely convinced that the young man who came to their class actually fought in the Civil War and since he looked much younger than me (her words, not mine), it must mean I was alive during the Civil War.  I tried to explain to her that the gentleman who spoke to her class was a Civil War Interpreter - a person who dresses up like a Civil War soldier and fights in pretend battles for fun.  I'm pretty sure she found my explanation lacking - she asked me "who would pretend to be in a war for fun?"  When her weekly portfolio came home yesterday I found this wonderful postcard tucked down inside all of her math and spelling and reading work.  If I ever manage to assemble a collection of family stories into a book format, this drawing may be on the front cover.

Play Fair

After the Game
Marble Slab Creamery, Bellevue
(ice cream still makes everything better)

Warning: I say the words "damn" and "ass" below.  Don't read if these words offend you.

SG & Friend
Uneven match-ups
were the rule of the day.

     After a rough day in a local basketball tournament, I did what I do best - I came home and wrote about it.  I wrote some for myself (you know, to get the angry out) and then I wrote a strongly worded email to the person in charge of the league.  It would be nice to receive a response to that email, although considering the less than concerned reaction that Joel got when he contacted this gentleman on the phone this afternoon, I'm not going to hold my breath.  And here's the thing, Mr. PersonInCharge, I get it, I really do. You're running a large league and today you're the point person for dozens of tournament brackets across Nashville AND you hear from complaining parents all.the.time.  But here's what you need to understand, I don't complain all the time, but even if I did, when the parent of a child playing in your league calls to report an abusive coach you ought to at least ACT like you give a damn - whether you do or not. As for SG, she was upset earlier today, but after a trip to Marble Slab Creamery in Bellevue (I plug them because they are locally owned and stayed open during the flood and handed out free ice cream so if you're on the Highway 100 side of Bellevue stop in and have a scoop), she's feeling just fine.  I, however, have some anger issues I need to work through tonight so that I don't walk into that gymnasium tomorrow and act like a complete ass. My dinner is here and I'm hungry so in closing I want to say the following: 

Play fair. 

Follow the rules. 

Don't cheat. 

Why are these things so hard to do? I've included a portion of the email I sent in the paragraph below.  I intentionally removed the name of the sports league because although I suspect only a handful of people ever read what I write here, it is open to the public and I don't want to be accused of libel. 

 "I have no idea what it takes to pull a tournament like this together.  The number of gymnasiums, monitors and referees that the [league] is juggling in addition to attracting teams to participate and creating brackets seems like a big job.  I do, however, know what I expect as the parent of a player who is participating in a [league] sponsored tournament.  I expect a sense of fair play where the referees know the rules of the game and enforce them equally and where the gym monitor actually monitors what is going on during the games and doesn't allow coaches to behave abusively toward the other individuals involved in the tournament .  This will probably be our last [league] experience, for no other reason than my daughter will be old enough to play in the parochial school league next year.  I am saddened, however, that after five years of an overall positive experience with the [league], we are ending our time with this program on a sour note."

     

Choices

 



 

Owen's Lego Guys

      Sarah's top Santa request for Christmas 2011 was for girl lego characters.  She said that all of her legos sets came with way too many boys and not nearly enough girls.  A quick look at Owen's lego stash confirmed that the guy to girl ratio in Legoland is seriously tilted toward the male end of the spectrum.  His collection included ninjas, storm troopers, soldiers, and even wookies - but I couldn't find a single girl in the bunch. Imagine my surprise (after Santa spent weeks searching for girl legos) to find out the week after Christmas that Lego was going to introduce a whole new line of Legos aimed squarely at the girl demographic. Now, imagine my continued surprise to find out that parents were outraged about this new line of Legos that was pandering to girls.  Where, oh where, do I begin with this?




"Lego Sets with Boobs"

First, these parents who are outraged over legos? What's that line of discussion about first world problems?  If you have time to be outraged over a line if legos marketed for girls then you've got lots of time on your hands (see photo, left).  Second, as a parent who's raising children in a state where our legislators are introducing legislation with tag lines like "don't say  gay" (unless you're calling out your gay classmates as sinners and fornicators because that's considered freedom of religion, not bullying,  so in that case you can say  "gay" all you want too) - well, that's a reason for some parental outrage.*  But back to the Legos.  Frankly, as the mother of a son to whom Lego has been pandering to for years (see Star Wars, Ninjago, Hero Factory, and Bionicle Lego lines) I'm thrilled that Lego has wised up and developed a Friends line that panders appeals to my daughter.  And may I say bravo Lego makers for expanding your repertoire and realizing that my daughter's allowance/Christmas dollars have the same value and buying power as my son's allowance/Christmas dollars.  As for the Friends legos themselves, I think they're great.  Do they include cafes and salons and hairbows and lipstick? Yes, yes they do. Do I worry that playing with Lego lipstick and hairbows will influence my daughter to grow up to be a vapid brainless looks-obsessed woman?  Not really, at least not anymore than I worry that playing with all those Star Wars legos will influence my son to grow up to become a Sith Lord (although his love of the dark side does trouble me - in what universe is Darth Vader the hero?).  In an effort to tie all of this together, I'm going to end with a line written by F. Scott Fitzgerald that I first read when I was in college being indoctrinated with all kinds of liberal ideas.  According to Mr. Fitzgerald, "the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."  I'm trying to raise my children in an environment where this is possible (the holding of two opposing ideas and functioning) so they will grow up learning to respect and value the choices of others, especially when they don't agree with them.



Sarah & her Harry Potter Legos

 

Friends Cafe
 

Friends Legos on the Hogwarts Train

Legos are little miracle workers at our house.
They bridge the gender gap, the age gap and the sibling gap.

____________
* How troubling that there are two pieces of legisation being considered in my state that, if passed,  effectively silence a student from saying "Hey, I'm gay," while protecting a student from being considered a bully for  saying "Hey, you're gay and you're going to hell."

Left of Center

Knoxville Catholic High School
Magnolia Avenue Campus

   My high school tenure coincided with filmmaker John Hughes teen angst movie making years.  The confluence of these two events means that twenty-plus years after graduation what I remember about that time in my life is now an interesting mash up of things that actually happened mixed in with plot lines from Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink.  These movies were such an integral part of my high school existence that it's impossible to think of one without the other.  I wore out two Pretty in Pink cassette tapes because it was the perfect soundtrack for my own angst-filled teenage existence.   The song "DON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME"  from The Breakfast Club was the prom theme my junior year and the prom was held the night of my seventeenth birthday (the prom was on my birthday, how cool is that!). As for my ongoing love for Sixteen Candles and the scene at the end of the movie where Jake kisses Samantha and all her birthday wishes come true - it's still dreamy, even now.

Jake Ryan.  Sigh.

May 1989
Anywhere's Better Than Here

    So, what's sparked this particular trip down memory lane? Without going into any detail at all, it turns out that being a grown-up is for the birds.  When I got home Friday night all I wanted to do was find something entertaining to watch on television and turn my brain off for awhile. Not five minutes after I started channel surfing I landed on Pretty in Pink and happily sank into a nostalgic haze. The fact that I now fondly remember my high school years would be a shock to my eighteen year old self. (See photo, right. Only hours away from being a high school graduate and I knew everything.) My favorite song in the months leading up to graduation was a little number by The Replacements called "ANYWHERE'S BETTER THAN HERE" and I vividly remember sitting through graduation just wanting the whole thing to be over with already. It wasn't until I helped organize our tenth class reunion that  I started making peace with my teenage years, and even then I had the Gross Pointe Blank soundtrack set to play on continuous repeat while I addressed envelopes and counted RSVPs (if you're unfamiliar with GPB,  it's billed as a dark comedy about a man who returns home to attend his 10th high school reunion and mayhem ensues).  By the time our twentieth reunion was on the horizon, I realized that somewhere along the way I'd gained enough distance to be able to look back at my teenage self and smile. Time had both softened the awkward edges of my high school experience and distilled my memories to a point that the good outweighed the bad.  As for the graduating class that I am privileged to be a part of, they're a great group of people.  If you are a part of this class, you know it's true. 

College Roommates
at our 20th High School Reunion

     I used to roll my eyes whenever my mother would tell me that someday I would look back on my teenage years and remember them as some of the best times of my life because, clearly, she didn't understand anything at all! (insert sarcastic tone and add a heavy sigh for emphasis).  As with so many things that my mom said to me over the years, it turns out she was right about this one. Back when I knew everything, I swore up and down that I would never say the ridiculous things to my kids that my mother said to me. Of course, all that changed once I realized the power of phrases like "because I said so, that's why!" My mother passed on a great deal of wisdom and I'd be a fool not to share it with my own offspring.  This is why I know for certain that when my children start complaining about how hard their lives are and arguing that I can't possibly understand what they're going through, I'll say to them "Yeah, I know (pause for effect) - but believe me, someday when you're all grown up with kids of your own you're going to look back on these times and remember them as some of the best years of your life. Really." And now, because I am grown up with kids of my own, I need to go do some laundry so they'll have clean uniforms to wear to school tomorrow and clean up the kitchen because it needs to be cleaned up, all while listening to the Pretty in Pink soundtrack on my iphone because it turns out that the music that soothed my angsty teen soul way back in the late 1980s is still able to sooth my angsty 40 year old soul today.  Some things never change.

_______________________________________

A few of my favorite John Hughes movie quotes. All but one are from the three movies mentioned above.

"Screws fall out all the time. The world's an imperfect place."


"Can I borrow your underpants for ten minutes?"

"Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?"

"Drinking and driving don't mix - that's why I ride a bike."

"Life moves pretty fast. 

If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.'

Eight

Zero

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Also 5 & one of my favorite photos ever.

Six

Seven

(she had the flu, but we partied anyway)

Eight