Remembering Wendy L. Small: 2996 Project Tribute
I received an email a few weeks ago from the person who heads up the 2996 Project. It asked if I still cared, and I certainly do. The 2996 Project seeks to remember those who lost their lives on September 11. I participated a few years ago and remembered one of the victims. There is much said about the terrorists who invaded all our lives that day, but little is said about the victims. Maybe it's because there are so many; it's difficult to see them as individuals. As real people who lost their lives, and it's also hard to think about all those who were left behind, who grieve over their lost family members. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives.
Today, I'm remembering Wendy L. Small.
Wendy was just 26 years old and a secretary at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center. From the research I've done on Wendy, she was a very well loved young woman. The tributes to her are many.
When I started doing my research on her, I came across an online forum where friends and family of those missing on 9/11, went to post and ask for information. There was a posting from one of Wendy's friends seeking information about her. In her message, she mentioned Wendy's son. Reading that notice was gut-wrenching and I can't even imagine how those days after the attacks must have been for her family, friends, and especially for her son.
Wendy graduated from high school in 1993, the year I graduated. Those who went to high school with her said that she was the one everyone wanted to talk to, that she was always sweet and kind. While working at Cantor Fitzgerald, she also attended school at night. Her goal in life was to make a better life for herself and for her son Ty. While she's not here to watch over him directly, I think that all parents who lose their lives too early have a special seat above to watch over their children.
Today, September 11th, please take some time to remember Wendy L. Small and the other 2995 victims of September 11th.
Drug Free PA
My best friend from high school, the one who rolled up his sleeves after my date gone wrong, is the director of Drug Free Pennsylvania. Like any non-profit, they are always looking for ways to raise money to support their organization, which does amazing things for the state of Pennsylvania. You can read about all of the things they do on their website.
If you are in the Harrisburg area, you can join them for their annual walk on May 30th. If you're not local, you can virtually walk and help raise money for the various educational prorams that help keep school aged kids off drugs and on the right track. To become a virtual walker like me, go here. It's as simple as using a PayPal account to make a donation, or printing out a registration form and sending in a check. The virtual walk takes only a few minutes of your time and is blister-free.
If you're a business or individual who would like to donate a service or product for their annual ebay auction, you can also find out about how to do that, or bid on the items yourself here.
Please help support a great organization!
A Review You Don’t Want to Miss
I think the house will be ready for the virtual open house by the weekend, maybe. We're having a major curtain push tonight, so things are getting done.
I'd like to direct your attention to The BBM Review today. I just read an absolutely haunting book and I wrote a review about it. If you have an interest in the war on terror, Gitmo, or if you just like books written by military (like I do), please check it out. There are also some other great reviews on the site. If you're starting to look for gifts for little ones in the family, there are plenty of toy and movie reviews. There are also some martial arts book reviews that have gone up. Check it out!
Also, thanks to Marguerite for the card!
So Now You’ll Know
The other day, I noticed I was getting a decent amount of traffic from Citizen of the Month. I went to investigate (always worried people are saying mean things about me) to find out that he’s a writer in LA and I just so happen to be a "current crush." I don’t need to tell you that he made my day.
He had this fun post up about not winning blogging awards and feeling left out, and set out to change all of that with this interviewing idea. Hoards of people commented and suddenly the Citizen of the Month had a part time job of assigning interviewers with interviewees. To be honest, I sort of forgot about it until I got a nice email from Dave.
Dave didn’t know my blog even existed before coming here to research and think up some interesting questions. His questions are as follows, and if you’ve been reading me for a while, I think you’ll find you’ll be getting some new information:
1. A quick perusal of your posts and background reveal your family life, adventures and challenges in martial arts, freelance and personal writing are the among many things that form the basis of your
enviable and rich life. Do you ever feel insecure (like many men) that your professional pursuits haven’t landed you a more conventional brand of success (like a CEO)?
What? You mean I’m not the CEO??? I actually consider myself to be the Supreme Ruler of Black Belt Mama which is way better than CEO, but anyway. . . in all seriousness, I used to answer the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" with one word: rich. I’m not rich when it comes to money; but I am rich in other areas. I have two perfect little girls (Yes, I’m extremely biased and I’m also correct). I have a husband who loves me and this family, so much so that he’s made sacrifices for all of us by working twice as hard as many others so that I don’t have to work outside the home. We made a ton of sacrifices to get where we are, selling our home to move in with my parents for a year when I had my first baby and my husband needed to switch career paths so that we’d be able to begin again on only one income.
So no, I don’t feel insecure. Do I sometimes wish I had a bigger house, or that I was able to take more lavish vacations and buy whatever I want to buy? Absolutely. Who doesn’t wish that from time to time? I’ve been very fortunate though, that I’ve been able to stay home with my girls, write for fun (and sometimes for some money), work from home with jobs that allow me the freedom to be a SAHM and also have some adult interaction, and do something that I love. . . write. I think I have a fairly enviable life and I’m pretty proud of it, CEO or not.
2. You’re a great writer (in my amateur opinion). Are you obsessed over your site’s traffic and do you make a significant amount of cash from your blog?
I hate to admit this, but some days I check my site traffic before I get my kids breakfast. Obsessed doesn’t even begin to describe it. Sometimes I think I have a serious problem. I get super happy when someone new links to me or mentions me (as long as they’re not all like "I hate that BBM. She’s a . . . ". Then it’s not so great). But yes, totally obsessed. As far as the money issue goes, that depends on what you mean by significant? Could I buy a bunch of bananas with my blog revenue? Totally (Pretty cool, right?). Could I buy a new dress? Possibly, depending on the month and the designer. So "significant"? Not exactly, but I guess it all depends on what your definition of significant happens to be.
3. You never use your name in any post I could find but you freely publish your picture. Why the partial anonymity?
I guess I think of it this way. I only publish pictures of me on my site that I think are exceptionally good pictures of me. Do I look this way in real life on a regular basis? Puh-lease! Don’t make me laugh. So, I guess I figure no one will really recognize me. I don’t use my name on my site because I didn’t want former students googling me, getting together at reunions and saying things like "Did you see that Ms. B on the internet? Omigod, she’s like a blogger, y’all." I taught English people. While I try to adhere as much as possible to the standards I gave my students, it just doesn’t happen all the time.
Also, crazy stalker serial killer people. You know, general reasons.
4. You don’t swear, even at the drive through of McD’s when confronted with a bitchy worker. Do your parents read your blog or are you just that virtuous?
Do my parents read my blog? My parents have no understanding of my blog. I mean, they’ve been on it every once in a while if I’ve told them to go read something specifically. Maybe. When I tell them something cool about my blog like "I’m getting published" or "I got a paycheck from my blog" they sort of nod and look at each other in confusion. Truth be told, they probably have that "I can’t believe we paid X amount for college when all she’s going to do is change diapers and ‘blog’" conversation when I’m not around. You’ll need to keep in mind that pretty much every time my Mom wants to check her email, she calls me and asks me what she’s doing wrong when she can’t get on, and usually, she doesn’t have the computer on yet. Ok, it’s not that bad, but you get the idea.
Virtuous? No. I take full responsibility for Lil C saying s%&t the other day and when she gets mad, she sometimes says "damn it" because I do too. I also swear into a pillow at physical therapy when my PT is pushing my knee too far. I’m horrible when I’m mad too. Saying it is one thing though. Putting it down in writing? The big time swearing stuff? I don’t know. I guess my opinion on that is sort of like my Grandmother’s opinion on girls who drink out of beer bottles (which I do, but she doesn’t have to know about it). If you want to do so, that’s fine. I’ll probably laugh and enjoy it. It’s just not me, not here anyway.
5. I apologize for not being able to read your entire site, but is there a post where you’ve described using your martial arts skills to defend yourself?
No, actually there is not. I haven’t had the need to defend myself since I started taking karate. That doesn’t mean I didn’t need to before I started taking karate. I didn’t write about it here before, but I was on a date that went very wrong a long time ago. With no karate training what-so-ever, I beat the guy to a pulp. He deserved every kick, every punch and every elbow I threw at him that day. I got away completely unscathed; he wasn’t so lucky. Many people wonder whether or not they’ll be able to defend themselves when faced with a scary situation. I know I can.
I train because I wanted to learn karate and be better able to defend myself. I also truly believe that when you know your stuff, you carry yourself differently. People just know not to mess with you, sort of like the Jedi mind tricks. (Oh MY GOD! Did I just say that? Mr. BBM is getting to me. He’s seriously getting to me!)
6. I enjoyed one of your first posts, Butt Flinging "Ash Holes". A hilarious tale, in retrospect only, that
makes a parent a parent. I noticed your style and tone haven’t changed much compared to your more recent posts. Do you think your writing (style or content) has changed over the past couple years?
My style hasn’t changed much at all. At least I don’t think it has. I spent so many years writing that I think my style is what it is at this point. I refined it in college and it seems to remain steady. As far as content goes, things have changed around here a lot. The focus of this blog was always getting to shodan and beyond; but with this acl injury, surgery and rehab, the focus has really changed. It’s not so much about getting to the black belt test anymore. It’s more about learning how to walk again the right way and getting stronger. Overall, I think that the tone has changed and will continue to do so. This injury is forcing me to think about things and look at things in very different ways. I’m not quite sure where it’s all going yet, but hopefully you’ll all stick around for the ride.
7. We all love Neil, but after Citizen of the Month (and Dooce), what is your current favorite site on the web (doesn’t have to be a blog)?
I absolutely adore Karl of Secondhand Tryptophan. I "rented" a spot on his blog many months ago, which led to a coveted spot on his blog roll, a guest post, a video that no one can seem to forget, and a nice friendship as well. He just cracks me up. He has the ability to take the tiniest detail and make it so hilariously funny.
I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, but I also love MySpace. I know, I know, but when you can search by graduation year and lurk back on all your former students and see how they turned out, and confirm that you were completely right about so-and-so. . . it’s a guilty pleasure. What can I say? No one is perfect.
Thanks to Citizen of the Month for setting this up, and to Dave for coming up with some very thought-provoking questions!
***Don’t forget to enter the contest give-away over at The BBM Review. Check out the "My Fruit Roll-Ups" post and leave your comment before it’s too late. Make sure you check back often. We have some cool martial-arts related give-aways coming up in February!
New Tagline in Order?
I don’t know how it happened, but somehow a picture of me got submitted to a website called www.imageoak.com under the category of "karate women." My traffic has exploded in recent days because of it. I went to the site and was trying to figure out what exactly it is and how and why I’m on there. Apparently, someone has to submit a web page/picture for inclusion on the site. It’s an image directory so to speak.
So, what I want to know is, who submitted my picture to the site? I’ve been getting hits from all over the world from this site and I’d really like to know who to thank for all the additional traffic. So, I’m calling you out. Who are you?
I’d also like to mention here that I am the number # 1 site for the following searches on Google:
"i suck at sparring"
"black mama sex"
"sexy female black belt"
So, with that in mind, I’d like to thank all those lonely guys in Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, Indonesia and other countries throughout the world for such wonderful search engine optimization help. It makes me proud. I think I’m going to add a tag line to my blog that goes something like this:
"Black Belt Mama: Disappointing Men Looking for ‘Black Mama Sex’ since 2006".
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