Confession
Thanks to all my shopping over the past few days, my cold has decided it’s the perfect time to ramp it up. That means that it’s the perfect time to complete my meme duty as per Martial Development. I’m supposed to state three embarrassing personal confessions.
1. Day and Date Memory Lapses: Yesterday I woke up thinking it was Sunday because I thought that Friday was Saturday. Because of this, I completely forget to take Big I to karate class yesterday morning. It wasn’t even like I remembered in the morning though. I didn’t realize she had missed her class until Saturday night. I frequently screw up days around holidays, so you probably shouldn’t make any plans with me when Big I has days off from school. Come to think of it, I am usually not aware of the date or time (since I don’t wear a watch) so making plans with me is risky. Tomorrow is Tuesday right?
2. Sunday Plans: During football season, I usually spend my entire Sunday curled up on my couch with drinks, snacks and my lap-top so that I can constantly check on my fantasy football players and their performance. I often yell at players as if they can hear me. Lil C is getting really good at yelling at players too. This makes me quite proud.
3. Pronunciation: Because I don’t wish to share any more embarrassing flaws of my own, (and since I already told you about the Danger of Recorded Material which goes down in history as one of my most embarrassing experiences ever), here’s one of my sister’s which I will never let her forget. After the tsunami happened my sister called me. "Oh my God," she said, "Did you hear about that (word spelled as she pronounced it) "tut-som-ee"?" When I could catch my breath again, I asked her if she was referring to the tsunami and indeed she was referring to exactly that.
I’m supposed to tag people, so I hereby command the following people to tell all of their most embarrassing confessions. With the exception of one, I’m tagging all the fantasy football participants in my league called Smack Talkers Anonymous. May this meme serve to distract you from your line-up duties to deliver me a win and a bump up in the standings. . .
Adam
Papa Bradstein
Goon Squad Sarah
August Runner
Ikigai (if you don’t have a blog, you have to add yours in my comments)
Marcus Aurelius (ditto)
Jenn Maniacal
Da Mack Daddy
The Case for Shopping More Often
Today I went shopping again. Yes, I believe I can currently be declared "legally insane" in a court of law. I bought Big I these shoes:
I bought Lil C an entire outfit for $9 including socks. My Mom bought both of the girls non-slip slippers so they don’t wipe out on my very slippery wood floors and steps. She also bought Lil C a ton of bows for her hair. Right now she’s wearing all nine of them in her hair at the same time. One is a Christmas bow with little bells on it, so I guess we’ll always know where she is when she’s wearing that one.
My Mom also bought the girls dress coats that are too cute; and she bought me an awesome sweater and cami that I’ve been drooling over since the Ann Taylor Loft mailer arrived at my house. I do have to wait until Christmas though, but it’s only a month away.
I got home from shopping with Big I and my Mom to find that Mr. BBM had set up both of our Christmas trees. He also put the lights on the one that doesn’t have lights and got out all the greens for the mantles.
I think I should go shopping more often.
Diary of a Black Friday Shopper
9:00 PM: Arrive home from a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, with plans to sleep for a few hours before hitting "Midnight Madness" at the local outlets. (My parents kept the girls last night.)
9:01 PM: Realize that there is a new Grey’s Anatomy on, so sleep can wait.
10:01 PM: Turn on the football game.
10:30 PM: Mr. BBM goes to bed to get one hour of sleep. I decide I’ll take a nap on the sofa, but can’t fall asleep.
11:30 PM: Rise and shine (or something like that) and head out the door to arrive at "Midnight Madness." On the drive there, despite the steady stream of cars heading in that direction, we are convinced that our idea is unique and that it will be "dead."
11:59 PM: Realize we were very, very wrong. We have to park in a lot that belongs to a nearby restaurant and walk to the outlets.
11:59-12:10: Dodge cars filled with crazy shoppers while crossing the street to get to the stores. No, people didn’t slow down for a lady on crutches. I started wishing I had fluorescent tape on my crutches.
12:10 AM: Arrive at outlets and my legs are already tired.
12:15 AM: Realize that the toy outlet jacked up all their prices by $10 since the day before. Promptly leave.
12:30-2:20 AM: Shop until we felt like we were going to drop. We bought Christmas outfits for the girls, pajamas, coats, mittens, hats, etc. (Mr. BBM and I also bought ourselves new shoes.) I also realized that people could care less if you’re walking with a crutch. They will continue to ask you to move out of the way instead of asking someone better able to do so. They will also occasionally swing their bags at your knee and make you want to scream.
2:20 AM: Go to food court for breakfast buffet with plans to hang out until the next string of stores opens at 5:00 AM. Realize the line is too long, so we opt for a slice of pizza. Mr. BBM gets me an iced tea with caffeine in it, and suggests we go home to sleep for a bit.
3:00 AM: Arrive at home.
3:05 AM: Mr. BBM is out cold.
3:06-4:40 AM: I try to catch some z’s but I’m too jittery from the caffeine, so I listen to Mr. BBM snore for a while and do my leg exercises.
5:20 AM: Arrive outside Staples and make several laps around the parking lot. Mr. BBM decides he will not be standing in line for a computer or navigation system.
5:40 AM: Arrive at mall, and of course, buy the thing that is NOT included in the sale. We only realize this after we’re already rung up, after standing in line for 20 minutes.
6:05-7:45 AM: Mostly just stand in line at the Disney Store. Also, spend entirely too much money on Vera Bradley bags. Oh, and purchase a navigation system (Mr. BBM decided to do all his Christmas shopping for me with me.)
8:05-9:30 AM: Arrive at Walmart for the toy portion of our program. A cashier asks if I’d like a scooter. I really want a scooter, but truth be told, I’m afraid I’ll run into something. Crutch my very tired bod all around the store, frequently wishing I was riding a scooter. Find a better navigation system for a better price and buy it. Spend what feels like an eternity browsing toy aisles and trying to figure out what toys won’t clutter up our house too much. (We found no such toys, but bought plenty of them anyway.)
9:45 AM: Arrive at restaurant for a much-deserved rest.
10:30 AM: Arrive at specialty toy store and finish getting Lil C her Christmas presents.
11:25 AM: Arrive home and promptly fall asleep.
3:00 PM: Mr. BBM wakes me up.
4:00 PM: Arrive at physical therapy. Complete all my exercises, increase my weight by 5 lbs. again on the leg press, increase my time on the bike up to 10 minutes, and add on leg curls.
5:50 PM: Prepare to meet parents and the girls for dinner, all the while praying that my parents wore them out so we can please go to bed as soon as we get home.
Something tells me I’m going to have a 10:00 or 11:00 PM which says something along the lines of "Yeah right" and possibly "What was I thinking?"
***The latest review is up at The BBM Review. If you are a home schooling parent, or a parent looking for a fun and educational website and haven’t heard about Time 4 Learning, you don’t want to miss it.
Things I’m Thankful for. . .
In no particular order. . .
- The guy who does my hair didn’t move to South Carolina.
- My Dad recovered from his craniotomy and is doing great.
- My grandmother is 90 years old, still living at her own home, and healthy.
- The BBM Review seems to really be taking off.
- I have an awesome dojo "family."
- I have great friends in real life ("chex," Kim, Kim (not a duplicate-I have three Kim friends), Rachael, Shep, Shelley, Stacey, Stacey, ikigai, etc.)
- I have great online friends (Adam, John, Mat, Miss Chris, Frotoe, Scott, Deryck, Sizzle, the always controversial Steve, Nathan. . . Man, there are too many to list.)
- I have a very helpful family.
- I only have to use one crutch.
- I have a husband who cooks, cleans and does laundry without ruining my clothing. He also takes really good pictures which will spare me from visiting The Picture People (see 11 & 12).
- Having a conservative doctor.
- Having an attentive and kind physical therapist.
- I live in a country where I’m able to speak up.
- Big I has a nurturing teacher this year.
- The people who hold the door open for me when I’m hobbling around.
- My massage therapist because I don’t think my neck ever would have gone back to normal without her.
- My chiropractor for his help and for recommending my massage therapist.
- Little Julia is finished with therapy and doing o.k.
- Being able to train with some of the most amazing martial artists at my dojo and at our training camps.
- Dark Chocolate because it gets me through whiny two-year old days.
- My fantasy football teams are kicking some serious booty these days. WOOT!
- Adrian Peterson-oh yeah!
- Good training partners at the dojo.
- Diet Decaf Icy Tea
- That I was published this year and actually paid for it! WOOT again!
- Neighbors with big dogs.
- Having inlaws that don’t drive me nuts
for the most part. 😉 - When I came home a few weeks ago and my front door was wide open (and had been for three hours), there weren’t any robbers/killers/squirrels in my house.
- Mr. BBM having a great job so I’m able to stay at home with my girls.
- The motorcycle lady, because she got me through what might have been a rough day.
- Our troops, who deserve our endless support and thanks. . . THANK YOU!
- The National DO NOT CALL list.
- All of my AWESOME readers and commenters who can single-handedly make my day with your comments and emails. I don’t take any of you for granted; and I thank you!
- All of you crazy lurkers who keep coming back for more despite not leaving comments. (I get to imagine that you’re Noah Wiley or Patrick Dempsey.) 😉
- All of the online publications who like my blog enough to publish me.
- My DVR.
- Project Runway
And now I’m just getting ridiculous, so on that note Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it, and to those who don’t, Happy Thursday!
Thankful to live in the USA
Have you seen this? (and this version of the same news report?) A 19-year old woman in Saudi Arabia was gang raped by seven men. Because she was in a car with a male who was not her relative, but rather a student she used to know, she is being punished with six months in jail and 200 lashes. She will be permanently scarred from those lashes, not like being gang-raped by seven men wouldn’t be scarring enough or anything. I should also mention the number of lashes was doubled when she went to the media to try to get help.
It’s when I read about things like this, that it makes me appreciate how lucky I am to live in the country that I do. We’re not perfect here. We have problems with womens issues and we certainly have issues with rape here too. But I doubt there is a single person in this country who thinks that a victim of gang-rape by seven men needs any additional punishment for her so-called "crime."
When I was in graduate school, I used to tutor three master’s level students from Saudi Arabia. I helped them as an ESL (English as a Second Language) tutor. We would often sit and have long conversations about Saudi Arabia and what life was like there. One of my students told me that there was virtually no crime there because those who steal lose their hands, quite a deterrent for a shop-lifter. While it’s all fine and good that their robbery rates may be lower, the media is often reporting vicious rapes that punish the victims. We also hear about honor killings where families believe that once a woman has been raped, it’s their responsibility to kill their own family member to restore honor to their family.
It’s this warped kind of thinking that infuriates me. It shows a complete lack of respect for women. It shows a complete inability to empathize with a victim. It gives men free reign to do whatever they want to the poor women who live in countries with ridiculous laws like these, because women don’t want to report the crime for fear that they’ll be given lashes and jail time as well, if not worse. While the men in the Saudi Arabia incident are being punished with jail time, what they’re doing to the woman is nothing short of disgusting. They are taking a young victim of a violent crime and further destroying her.
For those who might say that it’s none of our business what they are doing in Saudi Arabia and other countries that buy into this ridiculous mind set, I couldn’t disagree more. What they’re doing to that woman and others like her is a crime that should concern us all. It’s a crime against human decency.
Edited to add: Al Jazeera states in their article covering this issue, that the male friend of the rape victim was also raped by the men. He too, received 90 lashes. While the US papers are reporting that the rapists have been sentenced to five years in prison, Al Jazeera states that the men are receiving 1-5 years in jail. Big difference. All parties are receiving lashes. Click on the second link above to read the full story. My point is that the sentencing the victims to lashes is ludicrous!
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