Day: March 25, 2006

Hey lookit that. I survived last week. Next week has no major events in it, just the normal accumulation of minor events, so hopefully life won’t feel so crazy.

When life gets really busy I don’t take time out to write journal entries. But this does not mean that I stop collecting things that I want to write about. Instead the ideas sit in my brain taking up space and adding to the general clutter which impedes clear thought. I’m going to try to work my way through some of this backlog. Some of the thoughts really need entries of their own, but some don’t and so I’m throwing them into a pile here. Feel free to pick through and see if anything interests you.

I saw an interview with Geena Davis where she was talking about the organization she’s founded called See Jane (www.seejane.org). This organization was founded because of a study. The study showed that in G rated programming 3/4 of all characters are male. It didn’t matter if they were counting speaking parts, appearances, or just people in crowds 3/4 of them were male. There were a few shows/movies that were gender balanced, but by far most were not. See Jane’s goal is not the have a crusade demanding rectification of this, instead their goal is to make people aware of this. They particularly want parents to be aware so they can discuss with their kids the unspoken messages that this imbalance may send. I’m all in favor of parents discussing values with their kids, so I’m impressed with See Jane and Geena Davis.

The other day a friend was picking up her daughter from my house and let me know that there was a fantastic sale on cold cereal, poptarts, and juice boxes at a local store. I thanked her and appreciated the thought, but I did not hop into the car to take advantage of the savings. For me those items are pure luxury. We don’t need them, they aren’t really good for us, so no matter how cheap they get, I won’t be buying them. I remember when I did buy convenience foods like those all the time. I also remember when my grocery budget was three times larger than it is now. Advertising works folks. The number of ‘essentials’ continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Honest, it is possible to feed kids without buying juiceboxes or snackpacks.

A conversation in the car:
Gleek: (trying to come to grips with possible futures) “When I turn into a mom, you’ll turn into a grandma.”
Me: “That’s right.”
G: “When I turen into a grandma, our grandma will be dead.”
M: “Probably”
Patches: (Trying to join what he percieved to be a game) “I turn into a puppy!”
G: “No! You’ll turn into a grandpa!”
P: “No! I be a puppy!”
G: “No!”
P: “Yes!”
G: “We don’t turn into puppies!”
P: (trying to make peace) “When I’m older I’ll turn into a puppy.”

I’m still not very impressed with the organization of our local soccer leage. After cancelling games 3 times in a row we finally had our first game today. Only they sent us to the wrong field and two people were under the impression it was their turn to bring treats. Link had fun, which is the important bit. Even better he actually got into the middle of the action rather than hanging around the edges. I saw him make a few really good kicks. Hopefully he’ll get a chance to score a goal at least once before the season is over.

When Howard is gone I have a hard time going to bed. I keep finding ways to distract myself from crawling into bed without him. This means I was sleep deprived today. It wouldn’t have been so bad except that I shorted myself on sleep all week long. And with the evening activities the kids were short on sleep as well. It was most obvious with Gleek who went ballistic with every small irritation. When Gleek is that cranky I need to be at my best to try to prevent conflict. That wasn’t happening today. Fortunately the kids spent the majority of today outside. This means that they were thoroughly worn out and dropped off to sleep without arguement. So now I just need to make myself go to sleep on time and tomorrow can be a much more peaceful day.