Apr. 13: Is this racism? I don’t know.

On my way out of the school yesterday, the principal pulled me aside to tell me about an incident with which Jack was involved. I immediately started to apologize—it’s a habit—but this time it wasn’t Jack’s fault… because he can’t help his ethnicity.

Seems one of the instructional assistants heard another fifth grade boy calling Jack “Asian.” Not referring to him as Asian, but actually calling him “Asian,” like a name. I was kinda “meh” about it until the principal said the same boy calls another kid “Little Mexican.” Together, these things made me super-prickly. I was glad the IA reported it and the principal gave this situation the attention it deserved: the kid was reminded of the rules about name-calling at school and asked to apologize. (For those of you familiar with our PBIS program, I don’t know if he was given a warning or referral, or spoken to only.)

I don’t know if I should be angry or sad or mama-bear-protective. My boy knows his ethnicity doesn’t make him better or worse than anyone else, so I’m not worried he’ll be scarred by this incident (it helps that he doesn’t like the kid much anyway). I think the whole thing mostly just makes me sad. What makes me prickly about it is that a kid—any kid in 2013—thinks it’s OK to talk to others this way. Have these racist attitudes been taught at home? Or could it be that the school staff and I are all overreacting because it’s typical at this age to be unintentionally insensitive?

When my nephews were in high school, I remember my sister being shocked to hear them and their friends call each other the n-word. To them, though, that was just a silly name that meant “friend.” It seems like many of the racist attitudes we were exposed to while growing up in the 70’s are mostly history, at least in this part of the world. This makes me very happy. The idea that people who grew up then might not only still be hanging on to those attitudes, but teaching them to their kids, makes me very unhappy.

We all have biases, some so much a part of us that we don’t even remember where they came from. I am only slightly embarrassed to admit that I am biased against ignorant and/or mean people, bad drivers, and jackasses who walk slowly in crowds. But when it comes to the biggies—gender, race, religion, age, sexual orientation, etc.—it is so, so important that we point our children in the right direction, discrimination-wise. 

Stepping off my soapbox now.

Apr. 19: School day

I showed up at the school first thing this morning to help with our Rex Reader program. Sunshine’s in charge of it, and she got all bossy and told us what to do and where to go (such a meanie). For the kids who read 200 minutes or more in the last two weeks, we gave them these super-cool pins that say “PAW-some Reader!” around a wildcat (the school mascot) pawprint. Fancy Lori™ and I did the 5/6 grades and got all bossy by making the kids add up their own minutes. It was fun to play hardasses. At least we weren’t like Mean Dina, who wouldn’t give sweet little Alec a button EVEN THOUGH HE READ 200 MINUTES and then she made him cry and then she threw her head back and laughed her evil laugh at him. That’s pure, diabolical wickedness in Mean Dina.

It took just a few minutes to distribute the buttons, and then a bunch of us gathered in the conference room to put special wrappers around the candy bars that were being given to all the volunteers. This is volunteer appreciation week so we’re telling volunteers how much we appreciate them with cheap chocolate.

If it were up to me, about half the volunteers would get squat. I had to go through the database and generate a list of volunteers, and that was easy. But there’s a clipboard sign-in that way too many have been using INSTEAD of the computer—I find this infuriating because I have to enter all those sign-ins manually and it’ll take hours. Hours. Even more of them have not submitted the required paperwork and/or attended the volunteer training session required by the school district. But apparently rules do not apply to those people. They keep leaving me nasty notes that say they don’t have a nametag or aren’t in the computer, but it doesn’t seem to matter how many times I let them know they have to turn in paperwork and/or be trained; they don’t do those things, and they still complain.

I’m not supposed to hate people who willingly work for free, am I? But these people who don’t follow directions are making my life increasingly difficult. I talked to the principal—he’s the guy I have to answer to if I’ve allowed a volunteer to work without being processed properly—and he suggested a kind, firm note. I’m thinking a “P.S. Don’t make me knife you!” would be totally appropriate, too, because if history proves anything, I know this note will have little effect. Parents who ignore the required procedures will still show up to chaperone field trips, facilitate reading groups, and lead pencil sharpening seminars.

I’m just doing what I’ve been told I’m supposed to do. Why won’t they?

School was out by the time I left this afternoon; it was a very, very long volunteering day for me—properly trained, applied, and logged in, of course. Thank goodness I took that Starbucks break with Sunshine late this morning or I mightn’t have accomplished so much. Yay, me! And now I’m gonna strip off this bra and take a nap.

Sep. 9: A quickie

Once again, things are just too crazy-busy around here for a real post.

• School started yesterday. Katie and Jack both had good days; they enjoy their teachers, like their classmates and came home with a shockingly low number of new swears.
• I, on the other hand, learned lots of new naughtiness because I spent the first day of school volunteering. My job was to collect bunches of forms and do stuff with them. That about sums it up. Oh, I also shoved Cassie for making my blood pressure go up about eleventy-thousand points for a minute. The real treat of the day was lunch at New Seasons with a very fab group of gals: Dawn, Sunshine, Jenn K, and Dina.
• I’m headed out to the doctor in a few minutes and hoping he’ll have the magic touch to fix whatever’s wrong with my back. I’m still sleeping sitting up on the couch every night and dealing with a lot of pain when I do strenuous activities like stand, sit, roll over and fetch. Even my beloved Vicodin isn’t helping anymore. I hate my back. Hate it, hate it, hate it! Wish me luck.
• My friend formerly known as “Lovely Lori H” is now to be called “Fancy Lori,” as she is an art gallery-visiting woman of refinement. Please make a note of it.
• The “Obama indoctrination” hubbub kinda cracked me up last week. It was hard to get very upset about it; I certainly wasn’t interested in anything GWB had to say once he showed us what a lying jackass idiot he was, and I wouldn’t have wanted my kids to be forced to listen to him. But then I read Obama’s speech and OHMYBUDDHA, I was suddenly furious. What was wrong with it? Even if a lying jackass idiot president gave that speech—and George Sr. pretty much did, back in the day—I’d agree there were some very good points. My bloggy friend Jen E wrote a good reaction post yesterday. All I can really say is that people need to calm the hell down.
• And while I’m fired up, I’ll share this news item I found on Emerald City Guy’s blog: Third Nationally-Recognized Pastor Declares Anti-Obama Death-Prayer. This is scary stuff, folks. It’s also exactly why I’m no longer a Christian. If church leaders can get away with such hateful behavior, how can we ever expect their sheeple to be any better?
• In order to calm down a little, here’s a picture of a cute little teddy bear.
  
  It helped me. I hope it helps you too.
• My seester got a new job. Yay, Kath! It’s better than the one she’s had because it’s a different one.
• My dear friend Kim F’n turned the big four-oh the other day. You might have seen her mention it on Facebook—she was pretty much insisting everyone on Facebook acknowledge her day, and also that as many status updates as possible were dedicated to her. Our friend Gary even declared that September now be known as “Sepkimber.” I think that’s awesome, but since Kim and I share a birthday month, I suggested “Jenkimber.” Kim would not go for that because EVEN THOUGH SHE’S YOUNGER AND “KIM” COMES AFTER “JEN” IN THE ALPHABET, she wants her name first. So now September is “KimJenber.” I agree, it’s totally clumsy, right? But I’m alright with it because I’m too old and worn out to argue with Kim’s logic EVEN THOUGH THERE IS NONE. My point? You don’t have to call September “KimJenber” IF—please note the uppercase IF—you buy us sapphires. Many sapphires. Sapphires are good.
• We both also enjoy a great deal of rum.

I need to get my hair did and then leave for the doctor’s office. “Spineless,” my arse, Fancy Lori!  :)

Dec. 3: Prop 8—the musical

Found this in my inbox today, sent to me by several brilliant, open-minded people (I love my friends). It’s star-studded and fab!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die