A Human Right

Okay, I can't keep it pent up any longer. I'll try to make it short and sweet, even quick and painless.

I saw a train-wreck of a Dr. Phil show the other week and I was stumped. I just couldn't recognize the planet I have been living on.

Every day there is some new "human right" being claimed. Education, health care, etc...

Cliffs notes:
Boyfriend and girlfriend have sexual relationship. Girlfriend claims she is unable to conceive and is also on birth control for other reasons. Girlfriend gets "miraculously" pregnant. Girlfriend wants child support. Boyfriend refuses, claiming he didn't CHOOSE to be a father and girlfriend should have had an abortion. Boyfriend claims his rights were violated.

Wait? Am I missing something? Boyfriend... did you or did you not engage in sex with girlfriend? Doesn't sex make babies? Isn't having sex risking, even if it's slightly, parenthood?

Stay tuned: This is what really got me... boyfriends attorney. Boyfriends attorney claims it is a "human right" to enjoy, essentially, the fun of sex with no strings attached. Yes, you heard me right. He thinks the courts will one day rule that whatever that would be called (recreational-only sex?) is a HUMAN RIGHT. Girlfriend violated boyfriends rights by letting the baby be born. Girlfriend forced him into parenthood against his will.

Again... boyfriend, you had sex, did you not? This was NOT the immaculate conception.

Planet earth, I do not recognize you.

Attorney was ignoring the blatant double standard. Attorney is for women's rights too. But wait... if the man shouldn't be forced into parenthood and woman wants baby... then shouldn't the woman be forced into an abortion because of a man's rights? And what if man wants baby and woman doesn't? Then should woman be forced to carry child?

They are missing the obvious. The only legitimate human right is the right to live. The only one with a claim on this holy "human right" term, is that helpless little fetus. YOU had sex, YOU get to have a baby. You did have a choice. You made your choice... and now, YES, you most definitely DO have to pay child support.

Recreational sex a human right? HA!

Two things bothered me today:

First: That Obama said, "the problem with America is that incomes aren't keeping up with the cost of living and Americans aren't spending as much anymore."

The Second: I can't remember right now but it had to do with some sort of metaphor and I'll post it as soon as it enters my brain (which will be 3 am of course).

Why this bothered me: That people cheered because he called this a "problem." The real problem isn't the fact that salaries aren't keeping up with the cost of living... It's that the cost of living needs to stop rising and surpassing the average income. I may be your average town idiot, but honestly, shouldn't we STOP spending to get out of this mess? Greed, materialism, and buying before earning is what got us here in the first place, right? Dumb people. Do they not realize that the $$$ will come from somewhere, and if it doesn't, the debt will cripple our children, feed communist China, and force us to beg handouts via exports/imports with our enemies (are you thinking Russia right now like me? I know Iran is)? Oh wait- that's already happening.

I've gotta stop watching CNN. It's just that I bought a gym pass and the only thing playing when I run the treadmill is Bill O'Reilly and co. 5 televisions in front of me and you'd think one, just one, of them could be tuned to food network. hmph: gyms.

One show I will boycott for the rest of my life: The View. If you don't know why, just forget it. It will make you livid mad. And what the.....? Where the heck is Glenn Beck when we need him most? Scottsboro is a conservative my butt!

Enough. No more CNN for me. It's John and Kate plus Eight from here on out. Talk about effective birth control...

HALLOWEEN PARTY

Jenny is MIA because she doesn't own a computer! That's why she is not seen around the blogging world. But... lucky me, I work with her! We had the Pasta Halloween party tonight. Jenny had a little bit of trouble walking in those platforms, but we had fun. Last night I went to Tuacahn with Nicole. That's two nights in a row I got out. This kind of thing just doesn't happen.

Good Times

My Daddy has paid the rent
and the insurance man is gone
and the lights is back on
and my uncle Brud has hit
for one dollar straight
and they is good times
good times
good times

My Mama has made bread
and Grampaw has come
and everybody is drunk
and dancing in the kitchen
and singing in the kitchen
oh these is good times
good times
good times

oh children think about the
good times

-Lucille Clifton

This old polaroid turned up at Cara's house recently and when I look at it I immediately think of two things. That poem. And This song.

This was the first time I was of age to go "out" with the big kids. I felt the same kind of elated inclusion as the first time big sister did a face mask and manicure with little sister. It was the first and last time we ever went out all together... all 5 siblings. It was the first and last time I ever got picked up on in a bar. I'm also pretty sure that week was the first and last time I ever had a tan. Why all so short lived?

From the moment I read that poem 10 years ago it has stuck with me. Somehow it captures that feeling... the feeling of the fleeting phases in life when everyone you love has it somewhat together and you can breathe for a moment. A few moments where worry and fear take a back seat to the "dancing and singing in the kitchen."

This photo was taken in Newport Beach at a bar the big kids used to go to, the Blue Beet. There was a live band that night. The band took a break and that's when the Social Distortion recording started playing. Those next few minutes have been a place I go to often. I can see it like it was moments ago. We were kicked back around a table and we started singing along at the top of our lungs to that song, and laughing. I see one moment in particular... the chorus, "take awaaaaaaaay, take away this ball and chain..." Alex was leaning back, smiling right at me, me smiling and laughing back, looking directly into everyone's glassy eyes...everyone raising a glass and singing along...

It is a precious moment to me. One that I cherish.

That song has always reminded me of that crazy night and it has come to mean a little too much. I try to avoid the depressing words and concentrate on that prayerful chorus. It has strangely always been sort of a prayer in my heart that I wail out loud to God on occasion...

take away
take away
take away this ball and chain
well, i'm lonely and i'm tired and i can't take any more pain
take away
take away
never to return again
take away
take away
take awaaaaay
take away this ball and chain

The ball of mortality.
The chains of sin, and dependence.
This is the nature of life, I know. But the prayer in my heart has always been to one day rest. One day rest from heavy weight and pain and bondage, like we did in that moment, and so many other moments... but I want it eternally. I want this for everyone I love. I want to one day rest, at peace, all together.

Together.

oh children think about the
good times

July 22, 1998 Journal of Summer

There are few things that can take care of themselves. Capitalism is one of them.

Government keep out!

P.S. Alana- I got tickets for Wednesday night. I'm so excited. I can pick you up if you wanna car pool.

The Essentials

In light of recent (and upcoming) events we decided to reorganize the two storage units. The essentials have their very own corner now right up front where we can get to them quickly. Our special corner involves a gun safe overflowing with anything you could ever want and even some spilling out into the surrounding area, cased. The ice chest is full of various rounds. But don't forget ice climbing tools for... you just never know? I suppose after global warming and World War the earth's next ice age will close upon us like a coffin lid. That's why we put the box on top... containing blankets. Also inside the box is my Dad's American flag. When we added the ax to our survival corner, Janna and I couldn't stop cracking up. She wondered what we should title our fun little corner and I said, "Oh, I don't know.... maybe... The Last of the Conservatives." It could be the next great American novel. Don't take my guns, don't take my flag, don't take my... sheathed tomahawk? You can call me Magua. Do my opinions on gun rights need to be revisited?

Nicole's Words of Wisdom

From the Journal of Summer again, dated June 30th, 1998: (Havasupai!)

"Havasu has taught us all very much. Take me for instance- I've learned that dangerous trampoline make-out sessions with guys your friends despise is OK because Dave's done a lot worse, and that stripping is fine as long as the rest of your friends are running naked through the woods aw well. Oh- and that navajo girls never fail to hook it up on trips and if they did the millenium could come. But all is well in the half-light of a backwards canyon. As long as aliens occupy the premises and zebras remain forever applying aloe vera to their immodestly exposed tummies. Perhaps one day these lessons of frightening charisma, careless spontaneity, and dying innocence will prove their cause and precede responsibility. Until that glorious day all will remain in debt to Nicole for her charming wit and intelligence; but for now- at this moment in time, we must all make like a poisoned-tipped cactus and GET OUT." -Nicole

Ciara's Words of Wisdom

More Journal of Summer. I am reading through it all and laughing and crying all at once. It's easier to type it than scan it. This is an entry from Ciara the Great, July 6th, 1998:

"I never realized how much Alana and I are alike. We are practically the same person, as Darrin would say. Life is so strange and weird things happen out of the blue for reasons unapparent to us at the present. But in time things begin to show the effects. It's one big cycle. Live life one day at a time, and let time tell what happens." -Ciara.

Little did we know... Ciara was an apparent student of Alcoholics Anonymous or Al-Anon. "one day at a time in Al-anon". We sure were smart for our age.

The South Side of the Boulder

There comes a little space between the south side of a boulder and the snow that fills the woods around it.

Sun heats the stone, reveals a crescent of bare ground; brown ferns and tufts of needles, acorns, a patch of moss... bright green...

I sank with every step up to my knees, throwing myself forward with a violence of effort, greedy for unhappiness-

Until by accident I found the stone, with its secret porch of heat and light... where something small could luxuriate...

Then turned back down my path, chastened and calm.


-From Alana's Journal of Summer, undated, before it came to St. George and became the Journal of Summer.

Journal of Summer

Well, I found her tucked away in a box and I promised I would share some selections from the Journal of Summer. So here you go. I'm thinking if you guys click on the picture you will be able to read the words. Both pages are dated August 7th, 1998... the day Ciara, Paul and I went camping in Pine Valley. The first two entries were written by me, Alana. The next in the cute writing is Ciara's entry and the last is from Paul.

What was it about being 18 that made life so much fun? I think we really were just kids. ??? We had to be because I know I never felt like shit back then. And basically, I feel like shit everyday now. The only thing short of a Xanax or a Valium that was going to keep me from putting holes in the walls with my fists today was compulsively cleaning my already clean house. You know you might be mental when you start refolding folded clothes and sterilizing the already spotless refrigerator.

But don't worry about us (me and the rest in here). We're doing just fine.

Williams - Random

Herbie is Mr. Social

Willams Family - Pumpkin Carving Contest

Herbie was really getting into it (literally)!

Cinderella Pumpkin

Williams Family - Pumpkin Time

Pumpkin Patch. Gotta Love Oregon!!

Oh no he dit-ten

Brandon just said, "I don't really like cookies."

Will I ever understand this man?

Sand Dunes

We are working on "desert" but for now Anika calls the sand dunes the "beach".

We call Anika and her cousin Emmet "Charlie and Lola".

Janna

For years I have been telling Janna and her husband Mike that they live in a magazine. They have too much style for one family. Her house looks like a magazine and any old time I stop by they are doing things we here at our house wouldn't dream of. Things like: roasting whole chickens, cooking live, mail-order lobster, baking cakes, or just enjoying their general hipness. They are the family that "came with the frame". Janna has always had the ability to find the neatest things and is always one step ahead of the collective style consciousness. I convinced her to start her own blog and personally believe she was born to do so.

Check it out- Wish

She just got it up and running and is still working on the set-up. She confessed she just learned how to "copy and paste" so I'm sure it will be updated in the next few days. But already I must say... "dang girl, I already love the set up!" I don't think there is much to change.

The Law of Entropy

Nature tends from order to disorder in isolated systems.

There is something I can't escape. My ponytail. I get a new haircut occasionally and vow to myself I will NOT wear a ponytail everyday but it takes energy to maintain. If energy is not expended to maintain, order tends to disorder as quickly as gas released from a glass box. Some how, some way, my hair magically finds its way back into its happy place. I swear I don't know how or why it does it. Disorder is more probable than order.

The cardinal sin: ponybraid

At least I finally forsook that...
From childhood to Motherhood. It's probably too late and already written upon Anika's genes.
Hereditary memory?

Why, Alana, does hair in your face make you want to scream?

The years... they come and go....

And still...

Just buzz it already, would ya?

Some occasions are rare and special enough to warrant the hair partially down...

But most aren't...

Why Alana? Why, since childhood, have you never been able to out-run this measly ONE HORSEPOWER? Somebody help me! This little ponytailed girl wants to be a woman!

M.I.A.

170 essays graded, 30 to go! Then I'll be back in blogging action. Getting a gym pass tomorrow. It's time. You know when you have to buy a new bra (3 sizes up), because your regular is somehow cutting off circulation, it's time.

Coming soon: Halloween cookie decorating party II, that was so fun! I didn't eat nearly enough cookies... which brings me back to the gym pass... ope!

What Are Years?

What is our innocence,
what is our guilt? All are
naked, none is safe, And whence
is courage: the unanswered question,
the resolute doubt,-
dumbly calling, deafly listening- that
in misfortune, even death,
encourage others
and in its defeat, stirs

the soul to be strong? He
sees deep and is glad, who
accedes to mortality
and in his imprisonment rises
upon himself as
the sea in a chasm, struggling to be
free and unable to be,
in its surrendering
finds its continuing.

So he who strongly feels,
behaves. The very bird,
grown taller as he sings, steels
his form straight up. Though he is captive,
his mighty singing
says, satisfaction is a lowly
thing, how pure a thing is joy.
This is mortality,
this is eternity.

-Marianne Moore

Zion

Running down the trail... oops, have to make a pit stop to see the letters. Letters are always the main attraction wherever we go. (store signs, grocery store, packaging...) She is still seeing letters in odd places. The latest strange ones were "T" in the seams of our concrete, "J" for a hook on Janna's wall, and I'm still looking for some "H" she talks about while pointing at the front of our house because I don't know what she's pointing at. She officially knows her entire alphabet and now she is learning some numbers. She's also liking shapes and knows and says "circle", "octagon", "oval." She finds circles everywhere too. What a crazy girl!

She steers Brandon's head like the reigns on a horse. Whenever he would stop to look somewhere else she would grab his head, point it down the trail and kick.

Camping was a bust so we made a day trip on Friday. Brandon went hunting today and didn't shoot a dang thing. Lucky Babmbis! He is so tired and is already asleep in the chair in the living room. I guess I will Netflix it alone tonight.

Fat bottomed girls, you make the rockin' world go 'round... (click)
This happens to be one of my favorite songs of all time and I can't help but rock out to it!

Mmmm, I think I'll just taste some of this delicious looking mud...
Anika was obsessed with throwing rocks into the river and is still talking about it. Brandon had to be real quick about restocking her pile because she would freak out when she ran out of rocks.

CAMPING

Not what it used to be?
Or not the girl I used to be?

I think our big camping trip we had planned is going to be a bust this weekend thanks in totality to the Great Brandino double booking. Who knew the Big B was such a popular item? I asked him only about 50 times if he was sure the weekend of the 19th was okay. We have been planning this trip since July. He decided to call me last week to casually announce, "I can't go on our trip. I forgot it was the deer hunt." Lame. Could kill.

Remember that one Havasupai trip when all I packed to sleep with was a $5 hammock? While Nicole was loading toilet paper and commenting, "Better safe than sorry", I threw my hammock and ramen in my pack and replied, "Better light than safe." Dangling and swinging in the wind between two riverside trees with NO blanket, I cursed myself. Live and learn.

Baby changes everything.

To pack: huge ass tent, ice chests, hot dogs, play pen, baby blankets, baby clothes, bottles, diapers, snake-bite kit, first-aid kid, practically my whole entire house.... you get the idea. I practically have to adjust the tire pressure due to the enormous load in the back of the Vue. The logistics of camping with a child damn near take all the fun out of it, especially without your husband there to share in those logistics and hovering.

I am remembering the days: Itty bitty backpacking tent, 0 degree ultralight bags, water purifier, and nothing to feed me but fly line and a butane stove. There is just about nothing better than eating a fresh trout from the Colorado, drinking its ice-cold water and feeding fish skins to ring-tailed cats... not much on the agenda or on your back. Now THAT is fun. Waking up to a thin sheet of ice on your tent while in the middle of a herd of buffalo on the North Rim used to be a novelty and still would be... if I were not concurrently wondering if my baby was hypothermic, breathing, or about to be stampeded.

The mere thought of packing this whole house up and hauling it away only so I can chase Anika around, worry about her falling in the fire, getting bit by fire ants, or being kidnapped by some barren, hairy Eastern European woman and smuggled out of the country where even Amber Alert can't reach her just about turns me off to the whole experience.

I guess it's still always worth the work but... not without my hubby. I need his help but MOSTLY I just want him there for his comforting, cozy and somewhat aloof companionship. He may be a weenie for abandoning us but I LOVE my little absent-minded nutty professor.

Oh no he dit-ten.

Lately

A, where are you?? I feel lost without you.  I'm compulsively checking to see if you're still incognito.  It's camping isn't it?  Blast that camping.  

Just wanted you to know that I'm basically suffering a mental health stress breakdown without your regular insight.

As for me... last night I ditched Dancing with the Stars and went to Tuacahn to freeze to death.  Lucky for me, I brought my trusty snow parka.  I pulled myself deep inside of it and took in a big wiff of nothing less than New York.  In one breath I was suddenly taken back to a little Mott street, some Upper East side in the rain, and Battery Park.  There may have been cold gusts on the great lawn and fresh sewer steam from eden alley too. Lately I've been longing for NYC like those baby cows by our apartment that get separated from their mommas.  I haven't started wailing yet... but I'm close.

Logic

Real conversation 4 minutes ago:

Meg: "Stop singing Christmas songs Nicole, it's Halloween."

Me: "I know, but if I sing them long enough, it will be."

I don't even think it's the holiday that I'm so excited about. I never have a problem holding off until after Turkey Day. Honestly, I think it's the thought of putting my time in and getting it done. Everything I do is planned in months: Months tell the 2nd mortgage is paid off (5), months tell summer (7), Months tell we refinance (11), Months tell big trip to Thailand (13), Months tell I get to retire and become a stay-at-home mom....
You get the picture. I'm just putting in my time. Earning my stay-at-home momness. Working like a dog. Being as patient as is excritiatingly humanly possible. Months, months, months, one day at a time.
"You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why..."
Trying to be a good girl... so when this whole teaching middle school is over... or at least easier... and someday, when sunday nights are not masses of dread and despair, I'll appreciate it.

Lame

I have been waiting months to purchase some drapes for our bedroom. I waited forever so I could get the ones I REALLY wanted- heavy linen, lined, grommets, my dream! I opened one panel. Gorgeous. I started getting the next panel out but quit to look for an open window. I smelled serious cigarette smoke. Finding no window I started to think maybe Alex's ghost was visiting me and said aloud "Oh, hi Alex." Brandon, with much less a fanciful imagination, said "maybe it's the curtain." WT??? It was!!! Ooooh, I was so ticked. I waited so long so I could get what I thought would be quality, from Pottery Barn no less, and they sent me something that some smoker must have returned!

Not done. The duvet was in some strange packaging and I thought it must have been returned too. Fine, don't mind.... BUT- it had a big snag in the fabric that will disintegrate with the first wash. Maybe they do, in fact, ship things from a barn. They scheduled a free UPS pick-up tomorrow and are shipping replacements.


Short of calling for a boycott, please echo with me:
Oh no they dit-ten.

Just Clued In

I was clueless about the whole anonymous scandal that was going on until recently. Wow! Its like a soap opera on the internet. What ever happened to being non-judgemental? Isn't that what Christ taught. I love you Nicole and Alana.

PS: Remember when we were at Nic's house when I was visiting and we were talking about my mom and me taking care of her and I couldn't think of the word that started with "R". I remembered what it was. Resentment! I was trying to say that I didn't want to resent her because it is not her fault that she is sick and I want to have good memories of her. So I pray everyday that I will be patient with her and that I won't resent her.

I recant

... for posterity. (and my soul).

Conference Weekend in Pine Valley

The weather,
Anika's mood.
Celestial.

Delightful Idea

I was reading this great blog: Goold is Good, and it got me to thinking that maybe people don't sleep at night because they feel too much of life. Maybe the anxiety comes from an extended peripheral vision that is too great in scope to shut off at whim.

I often wish someone could invent some sort of thought recorder. I'm always having my best, most intellectual thoughts when I'm at that place in between sleep and awake and I'm too incoherent to get up and write it down. I try to persuade myself into remembering what my mind said to itself but the next morning, sure enough, it has vaporized.

Like today for instance... Semi drifting into sleep I had this great philosophy that went something like "I was born to write and live so I have something to write about" but that's not it (thank heavens... that is way too cheesy and so cliche). If I had a thought recorder, I could get up the next morning and wade through the mumble to find the good stuff, the gems that would become America's next quintessential novel if only I could get them in ink.

LET ME LEAVE YOU WITH THIS
I have this potentially great idea. I'll work out the details and tell you, but I'll give you a hint: Traveling Journal
Something communal... We'll see.

Miracles

• Today I am addicted to blogging. It's like my new cable replacement. When I want to check out of life, I just come here... only instead of going brain dead, you all manage to get things pulsating again.
  
• So this is me:
  

• Explanation:

TEACHER JOB DESCRIPTION:

1. Expected to perform miracles
2. Perform some miracles
3. When miracles are performed, they are not applauded as they were...well, expected

I've just spent an hour with a wall... the student behind the wall never surfaced. It would be easy to be a bad teacher. I used to think, how can they sleep at night? but now I know the truth: good teachers don't sleep at night anyway. I understand the ad teacher premise- they are going to do as little as possible to stay as close to the line as possible. The line I'm talking about is the one where you get paid or compensated fairly according to how much/hard you work. They've realized that factor A (the pay) isn't going to change so the only variable left is B (the amount of effort they put it). I think some of them are trying to get as close as possible to the line. These are the true master penny pushers. I once assumed they were mearly officient beasts of productivity. Now I know that I will never not find more ways to push students and punish myself. Maybe the miracles will be worth it when I stop working to perform them. Maybe the student who today said, "Mrs. Hadley, I've learned more in your class this quarter than I have my whole life," made it worth it... maybe just for today.