Friday, April 27, 2007

5 years

Five years ago today, I'd not slept well - too much excitement. Five years ago today, I was pampered and preened like never before (or again). I actually allowed someone to do my hair and makeup. I was mad because you were "late" (but not really - you just weren't early). Five years ago today, I was nearly blinded by the constant flash of the photographer's bulb and annoyed by having to hold awkward pose after awkward pose. Five years ago, I was peeved by having to stay in the back room with the kids while they watched Powderpuff Girls. I snuck out of the back room and sat on the back porch with you, our two dads, and my brother in law. We watched people arrive behind a screen of greenery.

Five years ago today, we were married, my dear. And I can't believe it's really been that long, or for that matter, that soon ago. I don't remember life without you, and I can't bear to think of what that would be like.

Thank you my sweetie for a wonderful five years. I love you.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Momee - Stinkies inna baff!

Yeah, that's what broke me out of my baff-time reverie. God bless Mr. Mac, who came in and cleaned out the, erm, stuff. We walked in to find her out of the tub, and just going "YUCKY! DAS GWOSS!" The impact on Little Miss S was having to take a shower to clean off. Maybe it will work as a deterrent in the future?

Blech! And now for some BLEACH!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

On violence

The shocking events at Va Tech haven't really sunk in for me. In roaming around the blogosphere this morning, I'm learning that a variety of folks are having a similar response - we must stop the violence. Some want to stop it by looking at video games. Others want gun control.

You know what? We need both of those, and we needed them 25 years ago.

I grew up in a home where the gun cabinet sits right inside the back door. In that cabinet there is a collection of beautiful firearms, some of which are rare collector's pieces. They're all shotguns and rifles. The one pistol that was in there was long ago put into the safe - it's just too dangerous to have around, thought my dad.

When I was about 6 years old, I got a BB gun for Christmas. Now, a BB gun isn't a very high powered weapon, and I would further submit that this gun was even less so than most. You seriously could watch the little pellet arc out of the barrel and fall well short of its target.

However, despite its lack of power, my dad would not let me handle the gun before teaching me a rudimentary gun safety course. See, I grew up in a society where everyone, men and women, hunts. Everyone uses a gun as part of every day life. Got a chicken snake taking your hen's eggs? Shoot 'im. Got a cow that's gone rogue and needs to get back in the field? Load up the shotgun with rock salt, and shoot 'er.

But, here's the kicker - the people in this society don't go on a rampage shooting one another. In fact, the incidence of gun violence in the community where I grew up is virtually nil. Furthermore, there are very few accidents that I know of EVER having occurred involving guns. I truly wish I had statistics here, but I don't.

So I submit that it's not the guns that drives us to the violence. It's the lack of respect for the guns and for one another that kills us.

You see, I learned how to use a gun at a young age. In doing so, however, I learned what a gun was capable of doing. I was taught "hunter safety" not only in the state-approved course that was required to have a hunting license, but also from the time I was very small. I learned that you *never* walk around with a loaded gun. You *never* point your gun at anything you wouldn't mind shooting (loaded or not). And you *never ever* shoot at anything that you don't absolutely intend to kill. There is no middle ground - by choosing a gun as a weapon, you are choosing something lethal, and you absolutely must understand that.

So it's not as much about controlling access to guns - it's about ensuring that people are properly educated about using guns. And also, to get on one of my other related rants - it's about ensuring that people understand that a gun is for protection and for sport - you don't need a damn automatic weapon for anything other than rapid fire situations. Those situations are illegal in hunting, and they have no other application than to put you in a position to kill many things in a short amount of time. There is absolutely *no reason* for someone to own one of these things, and because Americans have a noted lack of restraint, we have to regulate the ownership of them. We should *ban* their ownership, however.

But even more - I genuinely believe this incident stems a lack of respect for life. Honestly, I don't know but what the 'violent video game' culture also plays into this. I'm sorry, but if, in a virtual world, you're allowed to kill hookers and cops for the fun of it, you will lose some of your appreciation for the value we should place on one another.

It does, however, go beyond the video games. It starts when kids are young. I've had a serious issue with the Duke Lacrosse case, simply because I think that one lesson that needed to be learned was obviated by the overzealous prosecutor targeting guys who were innocent of the specific crime charged against them. Simply put, these guys were still doing things they shouldn't have been doing. In my experience with the Duke Lacrosse team (assuming that the team is the same 15 years later as it was in my undergraduate years), this group of boys never has treated women very respectfully. In fact, there is an entire subculture at Duke where men treat women awfully. Remember people, this is a school where the frats get prime housing in the best dorms on West campus (I'll plead ignorance and apologize if this facet of life has changed), while the sororities don't have housing. Disparity?

At the end of the day, we're still in a culture where women, and therefore more than half of our society, are treated as less-than-equal. Women don't get paid as much. Women have asked of them "So, do you plan to have more children in the future" in the course of a job interview. Women are asked "So, when your husband finishes his current path and is getting his new job started, how do we know you won't leave?" as part of a (different) job interview. Sure, you can say these questions are illegal, but they're still asked. Men rarely, if ever, get these kinds of questions.

And that's what yields this type of violent reaction. A lack of respect both on the part of the perpetrator, as well as likely against him by some segment of society. Put it another way - would this happen (or Columbine or any of these massive attacks) happen if there wasn't something in society putting the perpetrator down? If we can't start treating one another with decency and respect, we shouldn't expect to be treated so ourselves. I'm not going to go so far and say that this is a "Male-only" kind of crime - women are vicious and mean too, we just typically don't turn to overt violence as our way of striking back.

It's a long fight - a very long one. But it has to begin, and now. We can't sit around talking about how the college should've done better in warning the campus (despite the fact that they easily should've). Truly, our efforts need to be focused on understanding the defect in our society that leads a person to strike out in this manner. And fully understanding where the fault can be found. Then working to FIX THE PROBLEM rather than pointing fingers and blaming one another.

And people, if we can do that, then gun control won't be an issue any more. Nor will the disparate treatment given to women.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Hurt

I sent out an e-mail to my husband's family letting them know of various and sundry goings-on in our lives. Mr. Mac is doing great, Miss M is doing fabulously, Little Miss S is adorable, I'm pregnant. Please know that this e-mail was sent with Mr. Mac's blessing and that it's how he wanted to share our news. He felt it's my news to share, so I'm the one to tell it (and I can't talk about me before I talk about how wonderful the rest of us are). He's kinda cool that way. It went to a very close cousin, aunts/uncles and his brother and sister (as was his preference).

Now, I get a response from the cousin (along with updates on her adorable daughters), from the aunts and uncles. Hooray, congrats, etc.

But my husband's brother and sister? Zippo. His only connections to his generation in the United States? Oh, they've forwarded me subsequent articles about the Duke LAX case (so I figured out that a) I used the right addresses and b) they've read their e-mails). But no comment on the impending arrival of their niece/nephew.

And damn, it hurts. Is it just that they are so horribly self-absorbed that they didn't bother to hit reply and type "Hey, that's great" and send (gee, it literally took me less than 5 seconds to type that in)? Or is is that they just plain dislike me intensely?

I know where I sit. Now y'all come and tell me how inconsiderate and self-absorbed they are so I don't run around thinking my siblings-in-law hate me.

Sigh

Yeah, Mr. Mac and I have talked this over, in depth, and he actually managed to convince the rational side of my brain of the former. My heart, however, along with rest of my brain, tends to believe the latter.

Monday, April 09, 2007

I'm so tired but it's a good tired.

I'm exhausted. I'm finding that as time goes on, I'm just tireder and tireder. I have good reason, given that I'm 11 weeks pregnant. Kelly pointed out that I haven't really officially announced this whole she-bang, so there you go.

Today, I went to the doctor for a routine prenatal exam. I have to go to these now. Today I learned that my uterus is still tipped, and that's what's causing the cramps I'm having - it's intestinal, not anything else. I also learned that I'm healthy, everything is progressing, and all's going well. My iron is low, so I get to take yummy yummy iron pills. Hooray for me (blech).

I have to go to a Maternal-Fetal specialist now because of my cervical cancer issues last year, and because I'm over the magic age of 35. I don't know how I feel about the genetic testing, and I'm a little nervous about the whole thing. I figure I'll go to the appointment, discuss the matter with the specialist, and go from there.

At the end of it all, though, I'm basically a normal pregnant lady who's suffering a few side effects. Whew.

Spring Break Redux

More bullets....

* Miss M to my Mom: "Gee Grandma-Dawg, DevilMacDawg must have had the most wonderful childhood. There's just so much to do here, every day! I bet she NEVER got bored!" Oh kiddo, if you only knew - growing up in the cun'ry with nothing but animals for friends was, well, maybe not quite so exciting as a day-in-day-out proposition. It was still nice, though. :)

* In other words, Miss M had a fabulous time at the Farm. Cows, pigs, other little girls, cutting flowers and decorating a cross at the little church where I grew up. Attention, love, and care. Yeah, she gets it. She has also moved from calling my parents "Mrs. A and Mr. B" to "Mama-Dawg and Papa-B" like Little Miss S and my niece call them. Heh.

* She also got several bags (large ones) of clothing for the summer. We shopped the sale, then had another coupon, and the store credit card discount, so we paid less than half price for everything we bought.

* She left last night. So sad. Her f**king b**ch of a mother didn't bother to call and let us know she'd gotten home, nor would the s**t answer her g****mn phone. We know the flight landed safely, and that's it.

(I don't curse ordinarily. I really don't.)

* Little Miss S had a glorious time as well. "Wan' go see cows now." Repeated at least 4 times a day. Of course, my dad obliged. We also saw chickens, pigs, horsies and tractors.

* We also saw a dog. A sweet, floppy big dog. The type that will lick you to death. Little Miss S is terrified of dogs. She was carrying a ball, and the dog walked by about 2 feet away from her, and she flipped out. "Mama - Doggy scary! SCARY! Doggie Hurt!" Then she held out her arm "Doggie bite arm!" Erm kid, the doggie didn't come near you, and as far as I know, you've never been near enough to a dog for it to smell you, let alone bite you. Amusing in some ways, disturbing in others.

* Little Miss S and I ventured back to the city from the farm together in the sexy minivan. A long nap was had, then a stop to meet up with my aunt traveling the opposite direction. Then the fun began.

* Little Miss S is hilarious. She recited all of Dora World Traveler (I was listening to NPR while the video played in silence). Then she took off her shoes and socks. Took the socks and put them on her hands. Then proceeded to give herself a puppet show. Traffic getting back into the city was, well, actually less than typical. I never actually came to a complete stop on the interstate, and spent most of the stretch that's particularly bad above 30 mph.

* Today, she and Mr. Mac went back to school. I have tons of job leads to follow up on as well. For a nasty, overcast, dreary winter day in the 40s - AFTER EASTER! - I'd say it's going pretty OK.

* I see the Doc today at 3. I'm nervous. What if something's wrong? Mr. Mac can't be there. I can't face something being wrong without him. *gulp*

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Spring Break!

- Went to the ZOO today, along with a significant portion of the metro area. Y'all, baby gorillas are *cute*!

- Rhinos make very big poops. Just sayin'.

- Tomorrow, we're off to the farm for cows and pigs and such. Happy chilluns. Hopefully my mom will back the eff off and I won't have to go all psycho pregnant lady* on her.

- Today I went all psycho pregnant lady on a kid (around 10 or 11) who cut in front of me in line to go to the potty, right in front of her mother who didn't do anything about it. Sigh. I woulda jerked a knot in my kid, had she done that, but there again, my kids know better, and one of them is TWO!

- The zoo was hot. Very hot. Too hot for the lions to come out for a visit - they stayed in their air conditioned hut.

- So, the whole line in Biloxi Blues about "Africa Hot", maybe it's off? "Atlanta Hot" is greater than "Africa Hot"? Or maybe Atlanta lions are soft?

That's all folks.

* Oh yeah, the whole "pregnant" part of "Psycho Pregnant Lady" - I'm over 10 weeks along. Now all the internets knows, as well as everyone in my hometown. We're a tad excited. :)