my hands hurt. it hurts to type this a little. my arms hurt too. i feel as though i just did 6 back-to-back track a shows. (for those of you non-disney/non-puppeteer types, this means my shoulders are a little tense and the muscles of my forearms and right hand are starting to cramp up.) i have actually bruised the pads of my index, middle, and ring fingers on my right hand; they scream something fierce if i push down on them.
what, you may be asking, did she do to herself this time? is it a bad fibro day (please see past blogs for clarification)? did she find some sort of steep staircase to throw herself down? was she hanging on for dear life off a precipice with just her upper body strength to save her? (okay, i know that if my life depended on my upper body strength, i'd be a gonner in 20 seconds) no, it was much more strenuous than any of that.
rob and i discovered guitar hero III for the wii.
yes, we are dorks. yes, we spent the better part of 8 hours testing our shredding skills (that's what it's called, right?) to the tune of weezer, guns n roses, and social distortion. and yes, i'm now finding it hard to type because of this. but my band (eurema's cinnamon) just finished it's tour of tokyo. and rob's band (the burning retinas) completed the whole set list on easy.
by the way, have you played this game? granted, i play left-handed because for some odd reason the wiring between the musical section of my brain and my hands is mixed up, but this stuff is hard. the songs on medium are too difficult for me, and it's proving challenging to rob. there's still hard and expert. i'll wager even brian may would have difficulties with the hard or expert settings. i wonder if it's harder or easier for people who already know how to play a guitar. i mean, on one hand, you're used to strumming with one hand and chording with the other, but it's not like you're actually playing real chords - you're just pushing colored buttons. anyone got an answer for that one?
so i need to take a few days off from band rehearsal so my hands can heal. ah, the things we musicians suffer through for our art....
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
You Know, Sometimes I Worry
i overheard a discussion between a few of my children today. and that's what they are: children. most of them are only 14 or 15 - which is why it bothered me so much to hear this conversation.
one of the girls was telling another that it had been 3 months since she last had sex. the other girl replied that it had been 2 weeks and 2 days for her. one of the guys threw in his stat of a couple of months.
wow, really? i remember being in 9th grade. i remember being 14 or 15. i don't remember discussing casually in a classroom the last time i had sex. in fact, the couple of girls who were rumored to have slept with someone (at least the ones not in long-term relationships) were gossipped about mercilessly. the guys too, to some extent. there's always been a double standard there, but for the most part we seemed to understand that something that big was a little beyond what we could deal with emotionally. i think that what bothered me the most today was not the topic, but the blase way they talked about it. it was no big deal; clearly, everyone around them had had sex, so it was an easy choice for a topic.
i wonder if it has to do with sex education, or lack thereof. in the 5th or 6th grade, the girls and guys were separated and explained the basics of puberty and periods and whatnot, but in jr. high - in our gym classes - we had a whole unit on sex education. we're talking a 6 week, in-depth, mortifyingly detailed unit. we learned how and why people have sex; we learned the pros and cons; we learned about std's and issues that people have dealt with; we learned about disease and problems that can lead to death; we learned about birth and how it works and how a baby grows. basically, we learned that it was an important subject, one that had weight and needed to be thought about. i asked some other teachers at lunch (who used to work at k-8 and elementary schools) what kind of sex ed kids get now. apparently, they just get the hormone talk. i truly wonder if this lack of detail is part of what leads them to take sex so casually. i'm sure media and adverts don't help; and compounding these images on top of not taking sex seriously make for a very dangerous lack of morals. or even the concept of what morals are and how to uphold them.
two students i had two years ago are now pregnant. they're 16. there are at least 4 other girls i know of at school that are pregnant. it's not even a big deal anymore. a girl in my class got pregnant my junior year - it was a big deal. her parents had to agree to take care of her son while she was in school, and to support both of them. It was something that was taken seriously, whether or not you supported her. Now it's just casually mentioned. "oh, you remember sabrina from last year? yeah, she just had her baby." "hey, kelly's pregnant, did you hear? she and jorge are moving in with his parents." and it's not that there's a 40-year gap, either; it's less than 15.
are we really raising a generation of kids that have no concept of consequence? that scares me a little.
one of the girls was telling another that it had been 3 months since she last had sex. the other girl replied that it had been 2 weeks and 2 days for her. one of the guys threw in his stat of a couple of months.
wow, really? i remember being in 9th grade. i remember being 14 or 15. i don't remember discussing casually in a classroom the last time i had sex. in fact, the couple of girls who were rumored to have slept with someone (at least the ones not in long-term relationships) were gossipped about mercilessly. the guys too, to some extent. there's always been a double standard there, but for the most part we seemed to understand that something that big was a little beyond what we could deal with emotionally. i think that what bothered me the most today was not the topic, but the blase way they talked about it. it was no big deal; clearly, everyone around them had had sex, so it was an easy choice for a topic.
i wonder if it has to do with sex education, or lack thereof. in the 5th or 6th grade, the girls and guys were separated and explained the basics of puberty and periods and whatnot, but in jr. high - in our gym classes - we had a whole unit on sex education. we're talking a 6 week, in-depth, mortifyingly detailed unit. we learned how and why people have sex; we learned the pros and cons; we learned about std's and issues that people have dealt with; we learned about disease and problems that can lead to death; we learned about birth and how it works and how a baby grows. basically, we learned that it was an important subject, one that had weight and needed to be thought about. i asked some other teachers at lunch (who used to work at k-8 and elementary schools) what kind of sex ed kids get now. apparently, they just get the hormone talk. i truly wonder if this lack of detail is part of what leads them to take sex so casually. i'm sure media and adverts don't help; and compounding these images on top of not taking sex seriously make for a very dangerous lack of morals. or even the concept of what morals are and how to uphold them.
two students i had two years ago are now pregnant. they're 16. there are at least 4 other girls i know of at school that are pregnant. it's not even a big deal anymore. a girl in my class got pregnant my junior year - it was a big deal. her parents had to agree to take care of her son while she was in school, and to support both of them. It was something that was taken seriously, whether or not you supported her. Now it's just casually mentioned. "oh, you remember sabrina from last year? yeah, she just had her baby." "hey, kelly's pregnant, did you hear? she and jorge are moving in with his parents." and it's not that there's a 40-year gap, either; it's less than 15.
are we really raising a generation of kids that have no concept of consequence? that scares me a little.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
The Poster Child For Too Much Information
i have found her. she works at big lots on south obt. granted, she is not a child, having children of her own - more about them in a minute - but i have never seen such a perfect example of why you should keep some things to yourself.
i went to big lots for one thing and one thing only: an inexpensive speaker dock for my ipod at school. I ended up also buying some bbq chips and a coke. 3 items; all i had were 3 items. there was only one register open, so i resigned myself to waiting my turn behind the woman with the overflowing shopping cart. this proved to be more tedious than the 38 cans of cat food and 24 boxes of mac and cheese warranted. (seriously, are you running a day care center for 4 year olds and cats?)
as she scanned the (many, many) items, the check-out woman (hereafter known as TMI) began talking to the woman in front of me (hereafter known as cheesy-cat lady). as far as i could tell, the women only knew each other from the store; presumably, TMI had rung up cheesy-cat lady on more than one occasion. cheesy-cat lady asked TMI how things were going. this was a mistake of epic and tragic proportions. several times during this (mostly one-sided) discussion i wondered if cheesy-cat lady regretted her polite question. i know i did.
i now know more about some random worker at big lots than i do about some of my closer friends. i don't even know where to start. hmmm.... let's start with employment, though it was somewhere in the middle of the diatribe. TMI only works part time at big lots, and it's a good thing she does because she just got layed off from her full time job. and now that she's been laid off, her jerk of an ex-boyfriend thinks she'll take him back because she has three children - 3 boys, aged 13, 19, and 21 - and two of them still live at home and need to be supported. she and the ex have known each other since grammar school, and dated when they were in high school. she's very disappointed he turned out this way, since he used to be such a good person. she broke up with him because he was getting controlling and wanted her to cut ties with her children ("he's only 13 - i'm not gonna put him on the street"). he called the cops on her for allegedly walking around naked in the house to purposely distract the neighbors and attract attention to herself. (trust me, it would not have been GOOD attention.) he was planning to try to take her house and/or sell it for his own profit. when she broke up with him before he could do this - "i had to burn him before he could burn me, you know?" - he threatened to sue her. he is now calling her up repeatedly and telling her that she can't do any better than him and should take him back before she makes any more mistakes. now that she only has a part time job, he thinks she will have to take him back to make ends meet. she can't believe this is the same guy she once knew and dated. he's such a jerk. she doesn't want to be alone, but she's had enough jerks in her life, and is afraid she'll just attract another one. that's her life, her horrible life. but it's not so bad anymore because she's on zoloft and that's making her feel better even though she doesn't have any answers or any ideas on how to fix things.
seriously? at this point, the mantra in my head is, "i only have 3 items, please don't continue talking, i only have 3 items, please don't continue talking..." for the love of mike, people. take your disfunctional life and visit jerry springer. he and his trashy audience would LOVE to hear your story; your customers at big lots DO NOT. luckily, she simply rang up my things - apparently my scant amount of items did not allow for further explanations or play-by-play. what makes people feel the need to tell virtual strangers the most intimate details of their lives? i don't always want to hear these things, even from my best friends. there's just no need. demasi's probably the only one who would know these sorts of things about me, but he only knows a few - why should he be burdened with and/or bored by my inner thoughts and issues?
lady, seriously, buy a diary. i'm sure you can get one at big lots for a dollar, and you can put all your thoughts and feelings in there instead of spewing them out willy nilly all over unsuspecting customers...
i went to big lots for one thing and one thing only: an inexpensive speaker dock for my ipod at school. I ended up also buying some bbq chips and a coke. 3 items; all i had were 3 items. there was only one register open, so i resigned myself to waiting my turn behind the woman with the overflowing shopping cart. this proved to be more tedious than the 38 cans of cat food and 24 boxes of mac and cheese warranted. (seriously, are you running a day care center for 4 year olds and cats?)
as she scanned the (many, many) items, the check-out woman (hereafter known as TMI) began talking to the woman in front of me (hereafter known as cheesy-cat lady). as far as i could tell, the women only knew each other from the store; presumably, TMI had rung up cheesy-cat lady on more than one occasion. cheesy-cat lady asked TMI how things were going. this was a mistake of epic and tragic proportions. several times during this (mostly one-sided) discussion i wondered if cheesy-cat lady regretted her polite question. i know i did.
i now know more about some random worker at big lots than i do about some of my closer friends. i don't even know where to start. hmmm.... let's start with employment, though it was somewhere in the middle of the diatribe. TMI only works part time at big lots, and it's a good thing she does because she just got layed off from her full time job. and now that she's been laid off, her jerk of an ex-boyfriend thinks she'll take him back because she has three children - 3 boys, aged 13, 19, and 21 - and two of them still live at home and need to be supported. she and the ex have known each other since grammar school, and dated when they were in high school. she's very disappointed he turned out this way, since he used to be such a good person. she broke up with him because he was getting controlling and wanted her to cut ties with her children ("he's only 13 - i'm not gonna put him on the street"). he called the cops on her for allegedly walking around naked in the house to purposely distract the neighbors and attract attention to herself. (trust me, it would not have been GOOD attention.) he was planning to try to take her house and/or sell it for his own profit. when she broke up with him before he could do this - "i had to burn him before he could burn me, you know?" - he threatened to sue her. he is now calling her up repeatedly and telling her that she can't do any better than him and should take him back before she makes any more mistakes. now that she only has a part time job, he thinks she will have to take him back to make ends meet. she can't believe this is the same guy she once knew and dated. he's such a jerk. she doesn't want to be alone, but she's had enough jerks in her life, and is afraid she'll just attract another one. that's her life, her horrible life. but it's not so bad anymore because she's on zoloft and that's making her feel better even though she doesn't have any answers or any ideas on how to fix things.
seriously? at this point, the mantra in my head is, "i only have 3 items, please don't continue talking, i only have 3 items, please don't continue talking..." for the love of mike, people. take your disfunctional life and visit jerry springer. he and his trashy audience would LOVE to hear your story; your customers at big lots DO NOT. luckily, she simply rang up my things - apparently my scant amount of items did not allow for further explanations or play-by-play. what makes people feel the need to tell virtual strangers the most intimate details of their lives? i don't always want to hear these things, even from my best friends. there's just no need. demasi's probably the only one who would know these sorts of things about me, but he only knows a few - why should he be burdened with and/or bored by my inner thoughts and issues?
lady, seriously, buy a diary. i'm sure you can get one at big lots for a dollar, and you can put all your thoughts and feelings in there instead of spewing them out willy nilly all over unsuspecting customers...
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