Last Splash

The gene pool could use a little Chlorine.

Guess who's coming to dinner?

So, my granmother is in this rehab facility that is about five minutes from my father-in-law's (and wife's) house. The same father-in-law and stepmother that say "call us anytime...we miss you guys" at the five family events we manage to see them at each year. So, Sunday around 4PM we call, get the machine, and leave a message saying we're on the way to visit grandma and since they're so close we thought we'd see if they had dinner plans or not. Twenty minutes later, we get a call back, and they say "why don't you come by for dinner?" Okay. That's cool...usually when we call last minute the response is more like "well, I think we're all settled in for tonight, bud" at like, 7:30. (Have I mentioned that my husband's brother was always daddy's favorite growing up.)

Anyway, as we arrive later, John says, "oh, cool, Karen's here (senior in college stepsister)...and Eric, I guess (24 year old sepbrother)...and...J and J?" (J and J would be John's brother and his wife with 9 month old baby.) So, we walk in and J and the baby are all sprawled out on the living room floor, the table is set all fancy and stepmom-in-law has baked a pie and roasted a chicken and obviously, cooked a dinner for the rest of the family that was planned much earlier than 4PM. Obviously, our gut feeling that all the "call us anytime...we miss you guys" are fairly insincere, seeing as how we were the only siblings living in town that were not invited to this get-together. (In fact, Karen actually said, "I didn't know you guys were invited!" to which I promptly replied "oh, we weren't...we invited ourselves, apparently...")

So, that was awkward...

posted by: Cannonball14 at 17:08 | link | comments (1) |
childbearing

The Olympics...

So much is being made on TV and blogs about the Olympics and whether the gymnastics judging is "fair" or not. As someone who is proudly capitalist and believes personal responsibility is the ideal way for a human being to acheive their goals, I must say I have let go of the scores, and decided to be happy for our American gymnasts.

Shawn Johnson is a great example of someone who has worked hard most of her life to compete for a medal in the Olympics, and although she didn't win a gold (yet, I haven't watched the balance beam) I know that she is still an A-student at home that will graduate high school, go to her prom, be with her family, and has unlimited possibilities to acheive anything she wants within or outside of gymnastics. She couldn't win the gold for her team, but who did? A bunch of "16 year olds" who were lucky they even survived birth in a country where each family can only have one child, preferably male, were taken from their families at the age of 3, put through tremendously painful training, called their parents begging to come home only to be told they had to stay and honor their country, and possibly threatened with consequences we can't imagine if they were to return home after screwing up.

The Americans should be happy that we keep winning in an age where other countries are putting increased pressure on their gymnastics programs to succeed. Our gymnasts don't have the kind of normal life that we do, but yet they know they can go to the Olympics, do their best, smile at the end, and no matter what the result come home to a country that accepts them as human beings. There is no dissection of how much time they spent training in the last four months; that maybe they should have skipped that one hamburger or lost five more pounds or added one more tumbling pass to their routine or not gone on that vacation with their families back at Christmas. We're just proud that they made it to that level and are coming home with what, at least 6 medals? Who can't be proud of that?

So, let's quit our complaining about scores and just be proud that we live in a country that doesn't force anyone to compete when they don't want to, and rewards our Olympians for being the best in our country and respresenting us with smiles and excitement about the sports they're competing in. I, for one, would let China win all the medals in the world if it means that I can be free to speak my opinion wherever and whenever I want. And that means being proud of every American athlete that has sacrificed what I wouldn't to become one of the greatest in the world.

posted by: Cannonball14 at 19:03 | link | comments |

Guss what? I'm not restricted from this site! Yay! So I'll actually have time to catch up on everyone's news, musings, and gossip.

So, of course, no news yet on the baby thing. Between watching child-labor stars win gymnastic gold in the Olympics amid reports of how they called their parents and wanted to quit but they weren't allowed (probably because the Chinese government would have burned them at the stake if they let their country down), and spending two hours every other night in the hospital with my ailing grandmother, it's hard to find the energy and the drive to get in the mood some days. But we are giving it our best shot!

I also sent a kitten to certain death yesterday by calling animal control to come and get it. Now, I hate the idea of euthanasia, but I believe in sparing the life of horrible suffering in pets as well, so when a tiny 12 week old kitten showed up outside the building I work in, I tried to make friends. The only thing I could find to feed it from the community fridge was applesauce (choices: Killian's beer mustard, chocolate pudding that expired in 2007, light yogart that had aspartame in it, and applesauce) and I realized when I took that to it that the poor baby was blind in both eyes, with an infection so severe in one that it was literally outside the socket and completely yellow. So, I sent it to the shelter. I cannot have a cat at my house, and I know the chances of the shelter putting as much money into the care as this cat would need are slim to none, so I'm sure it was gassed, but at least I can hope. Who knows? Maybe some volunteer vet tech fell in love with it and took pity enough to adopt it. That's what I'm going to tell myself.

posted by: Cannonball14 at 18:36 | link | comments |