Remembrance: The 2,996 Project

In the context of September 11, there were so many that lost their lives that - how do you single out one person? There were so many acts of heroism that day from so many people.
Robert Mueller

Thanks to a site I sometimes visit, "Adventures in Parenting", I have now become involved in a wonderful idea ... the 2,966 Project. On Sept. 11, 2006, those of us who blog will each be commemorating the memory of someone who lost their life on that fateful day five years ago. I have been assigned a woman, Susan M. Clyne, who was the same age I am now when she died. Since I was living on the West Coast at the time, the whole event was somewhat surreal to me, unlike my neighbors here in the Boston area. However, I will do my best to honor her life and her memory.

Update: I have also volunteered to commorate a second person, a man, Jon S. Schimmel. I hope that these tributes will do justice to the memories of these two people who were well loved by so many.

Finally!!!

Work is a necessity for man. Man invented the alarm clock.
Pablo Picasso

Finally! I am no longer in the ranks of the unemployed! As of today I will be a 5th/6th grade teacher, teaching middle school English/Language Arts, Reading, and Social Studies. Quite a change from 1st grade, but much better than wondering how you are going to pay the bills!

Talking Head

I'll actually have a conversation out loud with myself. In a weird way, I just kind of get schizophrenic and play two characters.
Zach Braff

I don't know if it is an ADD thing. Or left over from my childhood. Or perhaps an overactive imagination. I have confrontations with people in my head. Usually they are people that I would like to confront, but either don't or won't because of circumstances. Being an INFP (Briggs-Meyers ... believe in that) and a Libra (astrology ... don't believe in that), I tend to avoid conflict at all costs. But in my head, I can have amazing arguments. My opponents are either too selfish or too stupid to realize that they are dealing with an intellectual dynamo who will crush their paltry objections like a tick on my dog's back. I am right and righteous. I am accurate and articulate. I am erudite and eloquent. And I ALWAYS win.

Failure and Frustration

Success is not built on success. It's built on failure. It's built on frustration. Sometimes its built on catastrophe.
Sumner Redstone

Well I am ready for success! Particularly because I seem to be experiencing a lot of the other three! No job, no income. Fighting with unemployment..haven't received a dime of it yet. Going through my savings like it was a sieve. I have gone to three interviews after having applied for at least 50 different jobs. Very ego-bruising! It's hard to be up beat when you feel like you are failing. I know that I am good at my job. Now if I could just succeed in convincing the powers that be that I am!

Garden Party

The garden is growth and change and that means loss as well as constant new treasures to make up for a few disasters.
May Sarton

Today was such a beautiful day that we decided to take advantage of it and spend the day tooling about in the garden. Actually, I think if we had waited another day, the neighbors would have been up in arms! As it was, we were knee-deep in grass. Between all the rain and a broken lawnmower, it had been quite some time since we last worked on the lawn and the garden. Found quite a few things too...a couple of Baxter's dog toys, my ski poles (???), and a very faded basketball. Still bounces though! We also discovered that we actually have a very pretty garden. Once I pulled up the majority of the weeds, you could see all the pinks, purples, and golds of the various flowers the way they SHOULD be, not peeking out among foot tall dandelions and the like!

Project Runway

Both film and fashion are businesses where the audience doesn't feel or see the work that goes on behind the scenes.
Tom Ford

Well Tom, you are wrong! BravoTV's hit show, "Fashion Runway" does take you behind the scenes, and gives you a glimpse of the creative process. Of course, not without a little bit of reality show drama.

I am addicted to this show. Yes, I know! Another show I have an addiction for! I watch it not so much for the drama, though I do admit to be intrigued by it just a little, but more for the designers and their inventiveness. I fancy myself to be a bit on the creative side, so that aspect definitely appeals to me. However, I have absolutely no patience for pattern-making, sewing, and the like; so I am in a bit of awe watching the transformation from sketch to attire. Yes, I can draw and I CAN sew, but I find it tedious (sewing, not drawing). And the thought of trying to reconstruct an actual wearable outfit from a mere doodle, well I have no skill there. The process of proportion and configuration seems to be a bit too mathematical for me. I am not analytical, no eye for detail...must be my ADDness.

My two favorite designers are Michael and Laura. Unfortunately, I don't think they show them enough. I imagine it is because they don't produce enough drama for the producers, particularly Michael who is one of the only straight guys on the show. And black. Although, unlike the suggestions of some, I don't think race has much to do with his lack of air time. However, it IS funny to watch the not-so-straight Kayne and his gay fashion diva persona. Plus, he does have a flamboyant, over-the-top sense of style.

I was glad to see Michael win tonight. His outfit was amazing from the cut to color to the creativity. He really was able to channel Pam Greir with this outfit. And, damn, I wish I had the legs and the body to carry off an outfit like that!

The Dog Jabberer

People teach their dogs to sit; it's a trick. I've been sitting my whole life, and a dog has never looked at me as though he thought I was tricky.
Mitch Hedberg

I am addicted to watching the Dog Whisperer. It stars a man named Cesar Millan who runs the Dog Psychology Center in Los Angeles. He is often called "the Dr. Phil for dogs" due to his ability to rehabilitate wayward or precocious pups. "But therapy doesn't stop with the pets. Cesar often has to re-train the dogs' owners to be more effective leaders for their furry friends." Unfortunately, watching does not translate into having the perfectly trained pooch. I am NOT a great pack leader according to Cesar Millan. I definitely need some retraining.

His formula for a contented and balanced dog seems impossibly simple: exercise, discipline, and affection, in that order. Hold on! I have kids, and I KNOW that those things are far from simple! The affection part is easy. Except when the dog has gotten a hold of your favorite black flats and chewed on them. And the leather flip flops. And the pair of come-f**k-me heels. Exercise? I have a hard enough time with that one myself. Besides, I thought dogs came by that naturally. Not so, according to Cesar. And then there is the discipline. "A dog that doesn't trust its human to be a good pack leader becomes unbalanced and often exhibits unwanted or anti-social behaviors," admonishes Mr. Millan. It's true, but as far as I am concerned, I think that I am the unbalanced one.

I have watched religiously and tried to practice what I have seen on my own dog-boy aka Baxter. Bax is a year old black lab/border collie mix that we got through a rescue group. He has all of the best traits of his two breeds... he is friendly, smart, and loyal...and all of the worst too. He can be fetch-obsessed at times, usually right around the dinner-bedtime routine. He's a herder; he likes to nip at our heels to get us moving. And he demands more attention than my five year old! I am hoping that much of this is due to his "youthful"exuberance, after all dogs don't fully mature until around 2 years of age. However, in the back of my mind, I think I am creating a monster. A monster who loves to counter-surf and lick my toes (eewww). A monster who chortles and rowrr-ruff-rowrrs (pay attention to ME!) during important phone calls. A monster who refuses to go for walks because, even though we have taken off the radio collar, he still thinks he is going to get zapped. (I told you he was smart!) A monster who looks at you with his big brown puppy eyes and wags his tail the minute you walk through the door. (I missed you. You only went t o the mailbox and back...but I missed you!) A monster who has wormed his way into our hearts...and costs a small fortune in heartworm meds!

So, here's hoping that a few more episodes will turn this dog jabberer into a dog whisperer. Cesar, when are you coming to Boston? I need you!

Brouhaha over Breasts

A babe at the breast is as much pleasure as the bearing is pain.
Marion Zimmer Bradley

Ahh the hoopla. A breast. On a magazine. A magazine about parenting. A magazine about pregnancy. A magazine about BABIES! What is wrong here? Aren't we subjected day in and day out to boobs in our face and other various sexual images through the media, on the beach, at the mall? Now we have a breast shown in its PRIMARY function as a giver of life, and people are objecting! And the battle rages on!

The furor over this issue amazes me. The scariest thing is that it is other WOMEN that are doing most of the complaining. Other women that admit to having breast fed their babies too. Have they forgotten what it is like to have to hunker down in public with a wailing infant just so someone won't be offended by a glimpse of a stray boob? Are these women really that afraid that their husbands and sons might be turned on by seeing this random breast? And that these same husbands and sons must obviously have no self control of their reactions? And that these same husbands and sons don't realize that breasts have more functions then serving as an object for fondling or pasty attachment? Pleeeeeease.

Lindsey at Theology & Geometry doesn't mince words when addressing the naysayers. "You should really get a frigging life if...some exhausted nursing mother, carrying around a diaper bag and stroller and a fragile little mound of soul and some pretty heavy emotional weight, has to shuffle her way into a damp stinky restroom to feed her baby just so you don't have to think about your dirty boys having naughty thoughts about boobies that aren't yours." Read the rest here.

Our Puritan roots seem to be getting the best of us. Pornography is rampant, and yet a breast-feeding baby causes people to get all riled up.
Kenneth Love, a stay-at-home dad of his own cute little bundle of joy, questions a society that can "find Victoria's Secret's yearly lingerie parade to be good clean entertainment" and its effect on women's body images, including our breasts.

I think that Babytalk's editor Lisa Moran summed it up when she said that the cover controversy clearly echoes the larger debate over breast-feeding in public. "There's a squeamishness about seeing a body part even part of a body part. It's not like women are whipping them out with tassels on them! Mostly, they are trying to be discreet."

Human milk is the preferred feeding for all infants, including premature and sick newborns. It is recommended that breastfeeding continue for at least the first 12 months, and thereafter for as long as mutually desired.

- excerpt from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) breastfeeding guidelines

Europeans get it. Most of the civilized world gets it. Even underdeveloped coutries get it. Many of our government agencies and employers get it. So why can't the public at large? Go to Goggle or Blogger and type in "babytalk magazine" and you will see what I mean. "sigh" We Americans have such a long way to go.

The Heat Is On

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.
Russell Baker

UUGGHH! Unlike most people, I am NOT a big fan of summer. And today perfectly illustrates that fact. It is supposed to reach 102 degrees today, with a heat index of 113 degrees. All that and humidity levels hovering in the high 50 to low 60% level. It is already 90 dgrees, and it is only a few minutes after 10 o'clock! That kind of heat is just miserable. Sometimes it is downright dangerous.

Now don't get me wrong, there ARE things I love about summer...Time off from work. Homemade lemonade. Longer days. More activities in the evening hours. Popsicles. The Fourth of July. Concerts in the park. The beach.

But for now, I think I am really just longing for a good snowfall. Ah snow, glorious snow! (Then again, ask me in February how I feel about snow!)