http://redcross.org/
Thousands of desperate families are taking refuge from Hurricane Katrina in more than 230 Red Cross shelters in the affected areas.
American Red Cross is launching the largest mobilization of resources for a single natural disaster in our history.
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Several hundred emergency vehicles and thousands of ARC staff and volunteers have been deployed from around the country for immediate emergency assistance.
Red Cross disaster response teams are deploying to the hardest hit communities to distribute drinking water and other supplies to victims who were unable to flee from Katrina.
Contributions are urgently needed to support the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.
We must act fast. Lives depend on it.
Communities from the Gulf Coast to New England are also bracing for massive inland flooding and widespread tornado activity.
And we urgently need your help today.
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American Red Cross
Together, we can save a life.
Remaining a child
Its unreal how one simple thing can just propel you back into being a kid. This weekend, my mom took me to Target with her to pick out some steamer contraption which allowed her to not have to scrub as hard to remove water satins (whatever). While there, she offered to buy me a few things. Not being my sister, I only got dishwasher tabs, swiffer wet sheets, some Dora underpants and a $.67 thing of watercolors for Vivienne.
While waiting in line, my mom picked up a candy bar and asked if I wanted one too. I said no, then saw one I wanted and tossed it in. Then I tossed another in for Phil. The lady in front of us turned around and giggled. We started talking and I told her about how I was 32 and now felt 6 being in line with my mom buying me stuff. She said she was 42 and was excited that her Dad was in town this weekend and they were going shopping.
I really thought it was just me, stupidly. Now I suppose it happens to all of us from time to time.
Update on MIA Friend
He was located in a local hospital being kept for observation. He isn't doing so well with his diagnosis of Bi-Polar and the medication cocktail. I am just relieved that he went to get help instead of something more sinister.
Now, to get on with my weekend.
Aw Shee-it
I have this friend that is missing. I got anemail from his parents last night asking me if I had heard from him or if there was any way I could go check on him. Its 11pm here and Phil has the car until 2am..he is out of town. My 2 yr old is sleeping and I can't think of one damn person who would be awake enough to 1. leave their house to drive by his or 2. come over here so I could go there.
His parents are in Texas. They are frantic becuase they usually hear from him 2-3 times a night and have not heard from him at all. Its now 11:46pm. I have emailed them back telling them that I haven't heard from him and have no way to check up this moment. What I really wanted to say was "call the police, something is wrong". How do you tell people that?
Then I think of my sister. This could easily be here in Texas and her family here, not being able to locate her, cell phone and home phone go directly to answering machines....would I call the cops or just think that she was being irresponsible again?
Lets hope Mark is just having a bad night, on a whim drove to Philly to track down his estranged ex-girlfriend or is out at a bar drowning his sorrows. He called me twice this week and I didn't answer nor call him back. If something happens, I won't be in a happy place....
Now I must try to get some sleep after sitting here waiting for an email back from his parents hoping that they located him. No luck. Ugh.
Perplexed
I went to my house or worship yesterday to pick up all of my bathroom components. I hate my bathroom something awful right now. I was able to get the new sink, counter, mirror, shelves, high cabinet and a few other items for about $300. Now I am waiting for the faucet to arrive via UPS and we can start putting my new spa-like bathroom together. What a relief it will be to get out of 70s bathroom hell.
When I was at Ikea, it was a constant juggling game in my head trying to figure out how I was going to get all this stuff to my car alone. I managed with 2 trips to the loading area and some foresight when parking initially.
When I was taking my final load to my car, I saw the strangest site. There, on the side of the loading area, was a car seat. It was a toddler car seat. No straps, no buckles, just the unit itself. I have been thinking about it now since last night.
If it was a nice one to begin with, I would assume that those people were lucky enough to have disposable income to just drop it off and pick up a new one elsewhere. But it wasn't. It was a dingy, older model. Was the child with them? Did they just happen to have a few extra? I still can't figure it out. I splurged on the Britax Wizard for Vivienne. I can skimp on many things (I bought Target Brand formula, clothes from Old Navy and eBay, etc), but I just couldn't on a major safety item. We even were silly enough to buy 2 of them when the need arose.
So, for me to leave my Britax seat behind, I would need to have a pretty bitchen IKEA item to fit into my car. I can't even imagine what that would be....
So Friggin Hilarious
BabyCage.Net
&^%# FRUIT FLIES &^%#@
We are having an infestation of fruit flies in this house. It really sucks. They are everywhere. Luckily, not in swarms, but in your face when you try to eat, when you are on the computer, in the bathroom, at your desk, in bed. Just one, or two. If I am cooking, there are one or two flying around the food.
I am a fan of Raid, so it is taking me a lot of willpower not to just spray the whole kitchen and worry about the poison later. I really hate bugs. They suck major outside, but when they are in my house, its all out war.
My fruit goes bad at an alarming rate in this house. I can't decide whether or not its the fruit flies that make it go bad faster, or going bad faster makes fruit flies. Truthfully, I toss things out well before I probably have to because I am so freaked out about it.
Parking, Driving and Waiting in Line
Sometimes I am surprised by the little things that can really piss me off. These are things that in my mind are just common sense. Plain, honest common courtesies that one offers your fellow man. I can't help but think they are just another way that people do not pay attention and prove daily that they just don't give a shit about anyone other than themselves.
Today's Lesson:Chik-Fil-A Drive ThruI go here at least once a week. One might say I have a little chikfila addiction. Every week for lunch Vivienne and I do the drive through. THe line is typically 10-15 cars long. THis would be disaster at McDonalds, but these people are professional and fast! I pull into the line, following the signs that say "Drive Thru". SOmeone ALWAYS pulls in a lane or two early and tries to get infront of me.
Now, I usually let them in because I can't just pull my car forward and have these people giving me stink eye while I sit there. So starts the fume. Then....the entrance of the store in on my left, while the handicapped parking is on the right. There are 2 pedestrian walking lanes across the lot that lead to 2 ramps on the curb in front of the building. I see these and think "Crosswalk, do not block". I always make sure to look and check if there is anyone parked in the handicapped spaces. I always leave a car length for them to get through.
Then, as its my turn to pull forward, the asshole behind me (normally on a cell phone AND smoking with the window down) pulls right up to my bumper as all the other people follow suit behind him/her. If someone were to approach in a wheelchair, they would be screwed.
I am not sure why this affects me so much. It taints my trip there each time. I suppose I am the idiot for going back each time. I just love those sandwiches...Dammit.
I Loves Me Some Phil
Tonight, we were watching VH1 Classic while both hammering away on the laptops. Johnny Cash comes on and we both start talking about how cool he was, how much we respect him...etc.
When Vivienne was just a few cells, we had decided that a boy would inherit the name CASH, named after Johnny, of course. He hadn't died yet. So I always had the vision of meeting him somewhere and having him meet the son that we named after him.
It wasn't to be, Vivienne came first.
When Phil and I do what most couples do when planning a family, we talk about names and ideas for our next children. Phil and I already have names for the next one, male or female.
When Johnny Cash came on and sang, it just felt right, good and perfectly normal. I asked Phil what he thought. We talked about how Johnny was such a perfect and wonderful name and sounded so much better than Cash. Phil says "It feel more truthful".
My god, I just love him.
The accidental mother
Being born a man didn't stop Jirawat Puboonam from being a loving maternal presence in the lives of her adopted children, or stretching the boundaries of what it means to be a family in today's world
Story by KRITTIYA WONGTAVAVIMARN
Jirawat Puboonam was not born a woman but when the 64-year-old talks about her children, it's clear that being a "mother" has given her life many meaningful moments.
Jirawat is a male-to-female transsexual, or katoey in Thailand. Living full-time as a woman, she's also the faithful wife to a 44-year-old husband and a devoted mother of three adopted children who were placed with her soon after they were born.
The first adopted child, Pornprapa Puboonam or Oui, now 21, arrived in 1984. Her biological mother was a teenage next-door neighbour who begged Jirawat to be a foster parent for the infant.
Thirteen-year-old Bunchoo Kerd-date, or Benz, followed the older sister eight years later. He was also the product of an unwanted pregnancy from another next-door neighbour.
The youngest, a two-and-a-half-year-old boy, Nattapong Promdang, or Bank, joined the family two years ago. He was abandoned by an imprisoned father and a careless mother and grandmother who lived nearby.
Because of the circumstances, Jirawat and her husband, Son Kerd-date, have taken in the three children as if they were their own and in the process have forged a new notion of "family". Coming from different "blood and guts", the five people are held altogether by bonds of love and affection under the same roof in a place called the Rong Poon community in Huay Kwang district.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/en/Outlook/11Aug2005_out51.php
"I don't care whether I'm a child of a same-sex couple or a child of a single parent. I only know that my best friend, who is so loving and caring, is my mother and I'm proud to be her child."
This article was part of the Focus on the Family's website. I think they are the embodiment of evil and represent everything that is wrong with mankind, to be completely honest. I hope and pray that I will raise the child that will destroy organizations like this.
Helping Boys Become Men, and Girls Become Women
Is My Child Becoming Homosexual?
Before puberty, children aren’t normally heterosexual or homosexual. They’re definitely gender conscious. But young children are not sexual beings yet — unless something sexual in nature has interrupted their developmental phases.
Still, it’s not uncommon for children to experience gender confusion during the elementary school years. Dr. Joseph Nicolosi reports, “In one study of 60 effeminate boys ages 4 to 11, 98 percent of them engaged in cross-dressing, and 83 percent said they wished they had been born a girl.”
Evidences of gender confusion or doubt in boys ages 5 to 11 may include:
1. A strong feeling that they are “different” from other boys.
2. A tendency to cry easily, be less athletic, and dislike the roughhousing that other boys enjoy.
3. A persistent preference to play female roles in make-believe play.
4. A strong preference to spend time in the company of girls and participate in their games and other pastimes.
5. A susceptibility to be bullied by other boys, who may tease them unmercifully and call them “queer,” “fag” and “gay.”
6. A tendency to walk, talk, dress and even “think” effeminately.
7. A repeatedly stated desire to be — or insistence that he is — a girl.
If your child is experiencing several signs of gender confusion, professional help is available. It’s best to seek that help before your child reaches puberty.
“By the time the adolescent hormones kick in during early adolescence, a full-blown gender identity crisis threatens to overwhelm the teenager,” warns psychologist Dr. James Dobson. To compound the problem, many of these teens experience “great waves of guilt accompanied by secret fears of divine retribution.”
If your child has already reached puberty, change is difficult, but it’s not too late.
DaVinci Code Movie
I am watching the Today show and listening to these assinine people discuss whether or not the DaVinci Code is anti-Christian. Who cares???
Does anyone ask if horror movies are anti-christian? Does anyone give a crap if its not this story? Ugh.
I thought the book was horrid. I forced myself to read it even after the first 5 pages of major cheese. It was not well written. It did nothing for my non-belief, no reinforcing, no convincing, nothing. If it did this for me, why would it convince one Christian to go against their belief?
Stupid Stupid Stupid.
Free Shipping
So tell me, does that look like Japanese? Because to the losers on eBay, it must.
I have listed about 2 dozen black and white glossy promo pictures of artists that were sent to me in publicity packets. On each listing, I stated FREE SHIP in the title and listing.
So please GOD, why OH WHY do these people email me and ask for a total???? Let us do the math: $3.00 + FREE SHIPPING = 3 FUCKING DOLLARS. Is that really difficult?
Phil suggested that I add an "idiot tax". In my listing, I will put a line that says
"If a bidder asks the total when shipping is stated as free, there will be a $1.50 Idiot Tax added to the item total."Good Idea.
There is a Woodpecker.....
hammering away at the outside of my house. It sucks.
Oh and its 12:02 and I am still in my PJs. *sigh*
It is 1:29pm...
And I am not dressed yet. Neither is Vivienne. She is sitting happily in her chair watching TV and eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I just finished some ramen noodles and not it's naptime. Sadly, not mine.
It all started out with a myriad of choices; Post Office, Grocery Store, Hardware Store, or just good ol' shopping. Then, as the television kept playing episode of Dora one after another with screeches in between of "D-D-D-D-D-D-DORA!" from Vivienne, I realized that my time was better spent just hanging out and relaxing.
Hey, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher this morning. I cleaned up the living room and put trash (ew..diaper trash) and recycling outside before bed last night (which was an impressive 11:45pm as opposed to the previous night's 1:21am). I cleaned up cat boxes, cooked breakfast and lunch. Why throw a wrench in that by trying to get dressed?
Maybe I will take this opportunity to take a nice long shower during Vivienne's naptime. Or...since I am already dressed for it, perhaps I should go to bed as well.
Headaches
Can I blame them on the computer? Sometimes, especially lately, I have so much to do that I try and make excuses to stay on the computer:
*I refresh the message boards about 20 times to see if anyone posted something.
*I check all my eBay auctions over and over and then go check the counters to see how many people have looked at my items.
*I hit 'send/receive' on my email aobut 400 times.
*I check the blog subscription sites about 5 times and keep clicking refresh to see if anyone else is updating.
*I make sure there wasn't any emails that I forgot to reply to.
*I check CNN and other goofy news outlets.
*I check the comments on my own blogs to see if anyone said anything new.
Repeat.
And I wonder why each day I start getting headaches during Vivienne's naptime?
I really do love this show. Well, only the performance ones. Some of these people just ROCK! I have a giant crush on Marty, who made me stop in my tracks while walking through the room a few weeks ago. This is when it all started. He was singing Fraz Ferdinand and made me just freeze. SO GOOD.
I encourage everyone to watch, just only watch the performance ones. All the other ones are BS.
More Cat Fun
I spoke a few weeks back about my cats and what a pain in the ass they can be. I have, in my cat ownership lifetime, been through at least 20-25 litter boxes. Some look like a good idea, but then just become crap. Some I got for a bargain, then realize quickly they won't work.
So,
as stated before, I made this awesome catbox for my cat's needs. Then, in an act of hatred and defiance, Kitcha has started to use my office as her giant litter box. We had a nice 8x8 remnant from the carpet that is now ruined and in a bundle outside because I finally realized that if the floor feels wet, its not just my imagination.
Now, Kitcha has been pooping just outside the box for a few months, even before we moved. This led me to think it was something medical.
I noticed that her claws have been growing to unreal thickness. She has stopped grooming all of them. Now, 3 of them are too thick for her to cut back, so I had to take her to the vet and have them clip them. A few months ago, I had to get one cut out of her pad because it had grown so far over. This time, we were lucky. She was walking around this house and all you could hear was "click click click". It was that damn nail on the hardwood. This was where I thought the problem was. But, no.
Sadly, my cat is having a problem with the litter box. She is scared. It might be because my other cat used to hide behind the door and jump at her on her way out of the box. It might have been the fact that we got a box with a lid that kept falling on her when she exited. It could have been the dustpan and broom that would tip over onto her when she exited the closet it was housed in.
Well, bad us for not realizing this...but Kitcha is scared, uncomfortable and downright revolting against her litter box. Before I went and picked her up from the vet, I took a jaunt on over to PetSmart where I spent $61 on 3 different kinds of litter and 2 more litter boxes. We are trying to see if she will use something different. The vet suggested new litters and different boxes in separate location to see which one she gravitated to. I must do this for a full week to see what happens.
So, for anyone who might be considering getting a cat, beware. If you care enough to not ditch them at the first site of behavioral problems, you will be spending some time, money and effort in fixing them.
We went to the mall last night...
and Phil and I sat on a bench while my Mom and Vivienne rode the train. While there, Phil and I watched this group of boys and girls, teenagers, hanging out in the courtyard.
Now, I have to say that some of this, confession-style, is because I WAS a little jealous of the 17 yr old body those girls possessed. Also, knowing that 12-60 year old men were leering at them made me uncomfortable. BUT...we were utterly amazed that all 4 girls had on tank tops and jean mini skirts, flip flops and the same style handbag slung over their shoulders. They all had medium length hair, straight without bangs, and were very tan. All 3 boys had on cargo-type long shorts with pockets at the bottom. All 3 had on big t-shirts and baseball caps. They all had shaggy hairstyles and were....very tan.
Our question was, Did they look at each other and notice that they all looked alike? Phil said no because they all had different color shirts on and different color hair. Can you really overlook differences like that and ignore that they all wore, essentially, a uniform?
Then, last night, I started thinking about it again. But then, it really hit me. The REAL difference is that Phil and I wouldn't DARE have worn what everyone else was wearing in high school. Our conforming was NOT conforming. So we didn't shop at Abercrombie and Limited and The Gap. We shopped at Thrift Stores where things were all one of a kind. We were trying so hard to not look like those people, they probably thought we looked like our friends, too.
So, I suppose the real moral of this story is that being like everyone else in my mind is the worst thing you can do. But as a typical 17 year old girl, its the best!
