Hold Me Back

Memo to You

RE: My Son, Redding

Dear obviously-former-military grandfather type dude from the park last evening (a.k.a. complete stranger),

I do not need to "cut off those curls" as they are not "clearly holding him back." Neither physically nor mentally.

Redding and I weren't the only recipients of your scorn, I heard you harassing the other mom about her child still in diapers. Do you seriously think we feeble women wait at the park for some big old power monger type like you to come along and clue us in on how to parent?

Go find a hobby and while you're at it, learn some proper park parent/grandparent etiquette. Sir.

Green Day, ADHD and Man-O-Rexia

If you know me at all, you are aware that I love Green Day. Truly.

I'm not one to dive into new albums, or even pirate them. I get around to them in my own sweet time.

So when my father in law told me to Tivo Carson Daly's new show last week, so I could see Green Day perform all week, I did.

After attempting to watch the last show, I think that the reason they call the show "Last Call with Carson Daly" is because you must be drunk to enjoy it. OK, maybe not completely drunk, but at least a little buzzed or have ADHD.

Why? Because once they get through with 8 different circular nausea pans over the crowd and stage, the band flows from the into into lyrics and no shot is held for more than 3 seconds. I timed it. It is insane.

The songs? I don't know. My brain is too pissed off about the flick-flit-flap of the crap camera work.

Carson? Dude. Los Angeles is surely more health conscious than NYC, but seriously? Won't your producers buy you at least one sandwich? You don't even have to put mayo on it, man. Please, please, someone buy Carson Daly a sandwich.

Thank you.

Daylight Savings Is For The Birds

How do I know? Because more and more Canadian geese keep showing up,e h? Honk honk.

Seriously, I do not think the magical hour lost in the Spring has ever affected the kids so much. Last year? Redding didn't care. Annabella wasn't in school. They slept in until 8 a.m. for about a week. It was sweet.

This year, everyone is just out of their skulls.

I took Redding to the library and one of the librarians offered him a sticker. He actually growled at her and then hid his face. Very uncharacteristic for my sunny boy. He refused a sticker! Unheard of.

So the librarian observed, "You know, most of the little ones are a little out of sorts today, because of daylight savings time."

I hadn't really given it any thought. But it would make sense that getting up an hour early would throw my happy-go-lucky boy into a little tizzy. And it took someone's grandmother to point it out to me. Crazy.

Recycling

I recently found out that in my area only plastic bottles with a neck and screw on top, labeled 1 or 2 are recyclable. And many kinds of plastic bags. But the limit on the plastic that can be recycled is frustrating.

For instance, I haven't purchased much yogurt in years. It was on sale this week, so I picked some up. I just finished a container. Yep, a small single serving container. Typically when I did buy yogurt, I made a point of buying a large container that would then be reused as much as possible before eventual recycling. But I digress.

Imagine my surprise to find on the bottom of the wasteful, single-serving sized yogurt a 5. Yep, it's made of plastic number 5, which is not recycled here. Or most places, it turns out. Also, on the bottom is says, "Protect Wildlife: Crush before disposing."

Yeah, maybe someone who is completely ignorant about the wastefulness of using a single serving yogurt container, which isn't recyclable, is really going to turn it over and find out that they should crush it before putting it into a landfill until the end of time... Right.

Thanks YOPLAIT for helping me put the wildlife first. You are such a wonderful, responsible company.

Why was I so surprised? Because I used to live in a place that accepted any plastic with a number. In fact, they had enacted legislation to punish people who were too lazy to recycle. I don't live there anymore.

If you're surprised at what can't be recycled, read up here at ehow.

Just an excerpt from their site:

Throw out [as in put into your garbage] types 3 (plastic food wrap and vegetable oil bottles), 5 (yogurt containers, syrup bottles, diapers, some bags, most bottle tops and some food wrap) and 7 (layered or mixed plastic). While some of these are recyclable, the plastics industry is still in the early stages of recycling and does not recycle these in most cities unless it is through a test program.

Social Networking

With the availability of social networking media these days, many of us are better able to stay in touch with old friends.

Seeing recent photos and sharing little funny blurbs has a way of warming up old connections in a way that a long, more formal e-mail can't. Plus, there's much less pressure than a phone call.

In the last year I've found myself spending a great deal of time on Facebook and LinkedIn. What in the world do I need with these things when I have my blog? Interaction. Convenient, adult interaction. The likes of which I don't find elsewhere.

My blog is fun. I really enjoy sharing the kids with friends and family and even strangers. But it is one way interaction 99% of the time. I do leave comments open on every post, until they get overwhelmed by spam. But my readers don't generally have a lot to say. That's OK.

I find myself living in a place where I don't have a lot in common with the people around me. Maybe I've felt that way most of my life, but I think it is more true now than it ever has been. Reconnecting with people who I share a bit of history with has been quite nice. We may not be the same people we were, we may be less alike now than we were then, but we still have that time we spent. That means something to me. Maybe not to everyone, but to me it does mean something.

Which is ironic, because I apparently have a bad habit of moving, far away. I've done it so many times in my life that it doesn't seem like a big deal. And I've always felt that if people want to keep in touch with me, they will. Why am I never the one taking the initiative? That's a good question and I don't have a good answer.

I digress. I could go on and on picking things apart.

The point is that life is good. Online social networking is fun. It may even spur me to start writing a book.

Abstaining

I can not tell you how many times I have started writing a political post on this blog. Let me assure you it is no "Out of the Mouths of Babes". The curse words, the terms like crypt-keeper, witless embarrassment to a specific gender, narrow, lying, ruthless, pandering... OK, seriously? The rage is too much to have a civil discussion on the subject.

How do the children feel about it? They kind of know that there is an election coming. And they know that mommy and daddy feel it is very important to vote.

And they may have heard mommy say something about, "would give anything to be a fly on the wall of that vile hateful human being when so-and-so is elected president of the United States of America."

But mostly we try not to spew the political poison down to the children. I hope fervently that this election will make a positive difference in our lifetime, and in the lives of future generations.

Health Care Costs

We seriously need to do something about health care costs in this country.

Many of you have followed the saga of our family and health insurance. Several of us have been turned down for regular health insurance. My coverage now costs as much as the other three members of my family combined, and that is actually less than I had been paying, by $200 a month.

It is insane.

Anyway, my new, cheaper coverage doesn't cover prescriptions until my incredibly large deductible is met. So, yesterday when my new doctor prescribed Crestor for me, I was like, "Could you possibly prescribe a generic?"

And he was all, "Dawn, your cholesterol is over 300. You will get the greatest cholesterol lowering effect with the smallest dosage with Crestor. I'll prescribe 20 mg. you can cut them in half. Have your prescription filled at Costco."

Yeah, my total cholesterol is over 320. Awesome! My bad cholesterol is over 250. The good news is that my good cholesterol is at an acceptable level. Yeah? Woo hoo.

Just for reference, that means my cholesterol has gone up more than 30 points since before I had Redding. Back when my doctor told me, "If you want to live to enjoy seeing your child (singular) grow up, you need to start taking Liptor now."

AWESOME! But you see, you can't take those drugs if you are pregnant, may become pregnant or nursing. So, there you go.

Yeah, so there I was at Costco, waiting for my 30 day (really 60, thanks doc) prescription to be filled. I've seriously not known such giddy anxiety since I last gambled in Vegas. Would the price come up snake eyes?

In a manner of speaking. It was $100.88.

Now, if my liver doesn't fail, this crap shoot may just be worthwhile.

Help Someone Today

I have posted here that I frequently read PostSecret.

The hotline that has become affiliated with that site, and helped so many people, needs help. They need your (fully tax deductible) donation to keep helping people.

You can even use those dollars just lying around in your Paypal account, waiting for you to buy something on ebay again. Just click here.

Information about this charity is available here:

Reese Butler
President and Founder

Kristin Brooks Hope Center

National Hopeline Network 1-800-SUICIDE 784-2433

202-536-3200

202-536-3206 fax

1250 24th Street NW

Suite 300

Washington, D.C. 20037

www.hopeline.com

reese@hopeline.com

Send a Message

As the sexist tone in the media reaches a fever pitch, the Women's Media Center created this video to illustrate the problem and send a message to the media: Sexism might sell, but we're not buying it! Sign our petition here: http://www.womensmediacenter.com/sexism_sells.html

Hillary Clinton may not be the Democratic Party nominee. She may not be your candidate of choice. But the way she was treated by the media is disgusting. No human being running for office deserves that. If you agree, follow the URL and sign the petition. I did.

If it isn't one thing...

It is another.

The recent earthquake in China has had me thinking about all the years I've lived in California and horrified at the decimation. The recent fires in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which we've been over countless times, has me sad as well.

Yesterday there was some tornado activity here. A few touched down in our area. Blocks away. One touched down and took out whole houses in Hugo, MN, which is just 18 miles to the East.

At about 4:30 p.m. the National Weather Service let the tornado warning for our area expire. It was still grey outside as it had been much of the day. I was inside with Red and had just seen that the storms were headed right for us, but I wasn't too concerned because the tornado warning was expired. I peeked out into the garage where my father in law was cutting wood to build a gate for our deck. I made eye contact in Annabella and motioned for her to come in. I asked her to help me close all the windows.

As we were closing the kitchen window, the grey day turned into very heavy sideways rain. I heard Andrew begin yelling, "Everyone in the basement. NOW!"

We left the other window, upstairs in my bedroom, open. We grabbed Red and filed down to the basement and waited.

What had Andrew seen that made him yell? Tarps and lumber, at an elevation of about 300 feet just flying around. Yeah. Bad news. What was he doing while we were all going to the basement? Pulling th cars into the garage and picking up the spilled garbage can that the storm knocked over the instant it hit. Crazy stuff.

So we waited and the storm raged. Golf ball sized hail hit.

When things calmed down a bit, we went back upstairs. Perfect timing because Red wanted dinner. We didn't yet know how close we'd been to an actual tornado, but when we looked out the front we saw that of the stand of 3 pine trees, about 20 feet tall, that stand in the corner of our lot, one was down and one is bent in a way that suggests maybe it should come down, too. Fortunately no one was hurt and the tree didn't hit anything on its way down. The two 30 foot oaks that stand directly behind the house were untouched, thankfully. Straightline winds did hit our neighborhood, and we got off easy. There was a lot of damage around.

It's funny. Minnesotans in general think earthquakes are really frightening. But the thing is, you don't know they're coming, so there is no sitting in your basement dreading what is going on outside. Neither is particularly good.

No Faith

Why is it? When I see someone posting free formula coupons, I immediately wonder whether it is someone trying to find a baby to steal.