Makes you all shivery and lumpy-throated, don't it?
I got it free at work, and let me tell you the employee health nurse there, that was the best freaking shot I've ever gotten. She said, "Stick, burn, done" before I even realized she'd wiped my arm with alcohol.
But now my arm hurts. Like wake up every time I rolled over hurts. But I guess it's better than ending up in the hospital with my old self. Seeing how I'm bordering on decrepithoodness and all.
Being a crazy cat lady takes a certain amount of confidence in yourself. You can't be shy about it. How else would you stand in Bi-Lo in front of an Audubon Bird display, carefully evaluating the bird calls of every bird on display so you can best choose one for your felines?
I wanted a Chickadee, because Loki goes crazy whenever he sees/hears one at the bird feeder. But our Chickadees are Carolina Chickadees and the toy one was a Black-Capped Chickadee and the song was only a one note whistle.
So I got a Mr. Cardinal.
Thor sez: Turn the camera off, I'm going to eat him.
There is one "junk TV" show I watch with alarming devotion, America's Next Top Model. Now, in my defense, invite me over to your house and give me a huge box of photographs and I will sit down and go through them all. My entire life, I've loved to sift through photographs. So, my attraction to this show has roots in just wanting to see the photographs. Still, it is a reality show and I, in principle, hate reality shows because they encourage debasement of the self and meanness to other people. I mean, if the point was who could work together the best, would America watch it?
But that is another post. Point is, I was watching a True Hollywood Story about the show (because my arm hurt so bad I couldn't lift it to cook supper and was waiting for either the wine to kick in or Jason to come home and cook for me) when the "news" broke about Britney Spears. I wish I was the judge in that case because the best thing for those poor children is a complete severance of parental rights and adopt them out to some anonymous couple in Kansas where they can be raised as normal kids and not some objects for the press, the paparazzi and the parents to use.
Bah. Makes me sick what we do to children in this country, all the while claiming to love them so much. Let's at least be honest. We only love our individual children and the rest can rot in hell as long as our kids get what we think they need/deserve/want. Why else would people be against food stamps for poor working families, against health care for poor working families? Why do some schools get computers and science labs while other schools don't have enough desks or books?
Why indeed, if children are our future as we love to say.
Loki sez: Mmmmm, tastes like chicken!
3 comments:
I think in our hectic everyday lives we forget that our children's lives are (or will be) very much affected by those other kids about whom we don't care. Abused and neglected babies? Let someone else take care of 'em. But when they grow up and murder someone, suddenly we're shocked and appalled. What else can we expect?
So what can we do?
Pat - Exactly. And when the next generation depends on government assistance, we are angry and resentful.
You can't save everyone, but some simple things that can be done are: teach real sex education in schools, and expand the programs that allow for home health nurses to visit at risk moms and babies, following them for up to two years, with available resources (parenting classes, nutrition classes, job skills/GED/college degree programs, etc). These programs have been proven to increase bonding between parent and child and decrease subsequent pregnancies, decrease amount of public assistance used, decrease amount of drug/alcohol use and decrease domestic violence/child abuse.
That would be a start to put these babies in healthier situations for those critical first few years when their brains (personality, intellect, ability to learn) are still being formed.
As I said, it won't save everyone, but it will save those moms who want better for their babies, but just have never been given the skills they need and are in such situations that slowly grind the hope out of them.
And I have seen a lot of this over the years: the big, tough, attitude filled teenage mom once her friends and family leave and it is the middle of the night, she opens up, she has questions and hopes and soaks up whatever information we can give her like a sponge.
If only those girls had a nurse to talk to every week for a couple of years, not just for the 24-48 hours we have in the hospital to try to give her the tools she needs.
And yes, I know she should have waited until she was ready, but she didn't, and there is the unplanned baby that the conservatives didn't want her to abort, and they need our help.
And by the way, Barack Obama is the only candidate that gets this, has seen this, and supports this.
We are going to be paying public assistance one way or another, let's start spending it in ways that reduce the dependence on it, reduce the chances of the next generation needing it.
A long answer, but that is part of the solution, I think.
I love it when you rant! ;-)
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