A long , long time ago . I met a girl from Japan . She was very sweet , and was a foreign exchange student of one of my siblings. She was a doll ! As an assignment for her English as a second language class in college , she had to write an essay about the differences between her native Japan, and Oklahoma/America. The Cliff's notes version is this : everything in America is super-sized, the bigger the better. In Japan , the regular meals at McDonald's are the size of the happy meals here, and happy meals are around half that size . They don't eat crap-tastic food full of preservatives and lard, and if they do , they do it in moderation. When she first arrived here , she had to shop in the little girls department to find clothes that fit. By the time she wrote this essay , she was in a woman's medium. She ended this oral presentation by saying , " Come to America , the big clothes are waiting for you ! " More than a decade later, I still get a kick out of it whenever I have to go clothes shopping in a department store . Largely because the big clothes got me. And boy did they get me good .
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Princesses and feminism , Yea !
As both a woman, and a Mother of a 5 year old girl , Princesses have been a large part of my life. Far larger than I ever really intended. Princesses of the Disney variety I mean ( Cause who could get enough of a great humanitarian like Diana ? I mean really ? ) Growing up ( and I will just tell you now that I was an odd and OVERLY-thoughtful child to say the least) it did not go unnoticed by me , that the real princesses just seemed to be made of better stuff than the ones produced by Disney , not just the princesses , but women in general were just better stock than Disney gave them credit for . Here we had Diana on telly , not afraid to endure the wrath of her Mother-in-law to get down and dirty helping others , be it starving children in Africa or what have you . While I feel I should mention that my favorite Disney movie from childhood was"Oliver and Company" , and Ironically I had already read the classic Dickens novel it was based on prior to having seen it . I had princesses hurled at me from it seemed, EVERY angle imaginable. Our parents even characterized B.S. and I as "Snow white " and "Cinderella" , because I had black hair and she was blonde. Honestly , I was happier being a Ninja Turtle or a Thundercat . They had more fun and got to DO things.
You see, even then , I noticed that the alleged heroines Disney was cranking out seemed to all be in need of saving , and incapable of either making their own decisions, or making decisions that didn't suck and lead them to certain peril. I mean, Snow White eats the blasted apple AFTER the dwarves have already warned her ( because of course thinking of this herself was not an option), Sleeping Beauty dis-obeyed EVERYTHING she was told ( at least in this instance the people doing the telling were women ) and naturally the ONLY thing that will save her is , surprise A MAN. ( and here is where they lost their woman advisor 'brownie points' ) Cinderella , well at least we have moved on from "Some day my prince will come " ,but her be-all, end-all is still the stupid prince, and she still requires rescuing , albeit from mice , but they are still male mice. Poor Cindy never thought to make a bed sheet rope and climb out of that damn tower herself ( even though it is seemingly appropriate for other characters in other films ), no she just sits there crying and waiting to be rescued .
At last , in the 90's, something interesting started to happen at Disney headquarters. Who knows whether they just got one too many angry letters from feminist Mom's or what, but there was a small change in the tides. After they offered up "The Little Mermaid ", wherein Ariel gets in hock to a sea witch and makes some pretty dang severe and drastic changes to herself ( i'd say growing some legs , losing your voice and a major change of address would constitute drastic ) just to win the heart of , you guessed it A MAN . As usual , she strove towards no higher purpose. Just get a man and disobey all of her controlling father figures (even if one is a crab ). There was a glimmer of hope In princess Jasmine, who didn't want to get married , and half-heartedly tried to be independent. She of course also gave in and hooked up before the end of the damn film , and all that high-faloutin' malarkey she had been spouting went out the bloody window. Never mind the way she gets objectified through the entire film.
Then there was Belle . At last ! An educated woman who would rather read a book than marry the town stud and bear legions of ungrateful children. I could almost get behind this girl ! She's smart , and she's not shallow ( she falls in love with a beast for craps-sake ),but still , they just couldn't resist making sure that happily ever after involved another friggin' Prince, and another friggin' wedding , could they ? Pocahontas was a little better , shirking her arranged marriage to go white water rafting in her canoe and spend some time communing with nature , I can dig it. Seeking counsel from the wise old tree lady , again , groovy . But then there's that whole Mel Gibson thing ( and believe me , my distaste for him is a whole 'nother blog entirely ) but to their credit , at least they shot him ( he didn't die, but they shot him )and there was no talk of marriage . But our heroine is left noticeably un-fulfilled in the end and pining away on her cliff for of all things, A MAN . I will never understand why she couldn't just shrug her shoulders and be like , " well that was a learning experience " , and then just ride off into the sunset in her big-girl panties by her damn self. Would that have been so terrible ?
Esmeralda was a nice improvement , as she kicks ass and takes names on more than one occasion , and fiercely asserts her independence . This is good, but she still gets objectified by THREE men ( hunchback with a heart of gold, arrogant blonde who thinks he's gods gift, and creepy , creepy ,CREEPY Judge Frollo who just gives you the willies) To her credit , there is no marriage at the end , or even a definitive relationship. But she still requires a little too much saving . Then we have Mulan. Mulan , when it came out was the first time I ever left the theatre thinking , " well done Disney" , My only complaint is that they didn't just end the damn movie with her Saving all of China , and being honored by the Emperor . Nope, instead they had to deliver a friggin' man to her door. Yippee. Eventually we made our way to Princess Tiana, and by this point I was Taking my own munchkin to the movies . I felt it was very positive that instead of just sitting on her kiester and waiting for her dreams to come true , Tiana was willing to work , several jobs if need be to get what she wanted , and her focus was on her career , relationships ? Please ! Ain't nobody got time for that ! I enjoyed the message of the song, "dig a little deeper ", Mama Odie had a good point , and remains one of my all time favorite Disney Characters. Sadly though, this offering still ends in a wedding that turns this ordinary girl, into a princess. A little while later, they offered up "Tangled", and I enjoyed the tree climbing , hair swinging, barefoot, cast iron skillet wielding Rapunzel . That being said, for all their efforts at making it something else, it remained , the quintessential princess locked in a tower and in dire need of rescue from a man.
Last year , I finally got the pleasure of presenting my daughter with the Disney Princess i had waited 31 years for , and her name , is Merida. Merida looks like a normal girl, not all chiseled with a teeny-tiny waist , she chews with her mouth open, she belches, she has a sloppy rats nest for hair , and she leaves her weapons on the dinner table. You know what else ? She can out-shoot any man alive with her Bow , and can climb the friggin' fire-falls IN A DRESS ! She can hunt and catch her own food, and survive in the wilderness. Her whole trouble starts when she puts all the boys to shame by out-shooting them because she doesn't want to get married dammit ! By the end , not only has she saved herself, she has saved her whole damn family ! Even better , there is NO wedding, there is NO man . There is just her riding off into the sunset on her horse with her bow free to be her , and to find her own way , in her own time . It is beautiful. I damn near skipped out of the theatre after that one. I even drug Wednesday to see it TWICE !
Thank you Disney ! For finally serving up a Princess I could stand behind ! And thank you Diana, because when Wednesday told me "there aren't any real princesses" , I was able to tell her , " oh yes there are " , and use your bravery and humanitarian efforts to illustrate for her that true princesses are far more than just a title .
Here's hoping that this page that has been turned , this new chapter being written , will someday help parents raise a generation of strong , independent women .
And just for the record, sometimes your Prince charming is actually a Princess.
You see, even then , I noticed that the alleged heroines Disney was cranking out seemed to all be in need of saving , and incapable of either making their own decisions, or making decisions that didn't suck and lead them to certain peril. I mean, Snow White eats the blasted apple AFTER the dwarves have already warned her ( because of course thinking of this herself was not an option), Sleeping Beauty dis-obeyed EVERYTHING she was told ( at least in this instance the people doing the telling were women ) and naturally the ONLY thing that will save her is , surprise A MAN. ( and here is where they lost their woman advisor 'brownie points' ) Cinderella , well at least we have moved on from "Some day my prince will come " ,but her be-all, end-all is still the stupid prince, and she still requires rescuing , albeit from mice , but they are still male mice. Poor Cindy never thought to make a bed sheet rope and climb out of that damn tower herself ( even though it is seemingly appropriate for other characters in other films ), no she just sits there crying and waiting to be rescued .
At last , in the 90's, something interesting started to happen at Disney headquarters. Who knows whether they just got one too many angry letters from feminist Mom's or what, but there was a small change in the tides. After they offered up "The Little Mermaid ", wherein Ariel gets in hock to a sea witch and makes some pretty dang severe and drastic changes to herself ( i'd say growing some legs , losing your voice and a major change of address would constitute drastic ) just to win the heart of , you guessed it A MAN . As usual , she strove towards no higher purpose. Just get a man and disobey all of her controlling father figures (even if one is a crab ). There was a glimmer of hope In princess Jasmine, who didn't want to get married , and half-heartedly tried to be independent. She of course also gave in and hooked up before the end of the damn film , and all that high-faloutin' malarkey she had been spouting went out the bloody window. Never mind the way she gets objectified through the entire film.
Then there was Belle . At last ! An educated woman who would rather read a book than marry the town stud and bear legions of ungrateful children. I could almost get behind this girl ! She's smart , and she's not shallow ( she falls in love with a beast for craps-sake ),but still , they just couldn't resist making sure that happily ever after involved another friggin' Prince, and another friggin' wedding , could they ? Pocahontas was a little better , shirking her arranged marriage to go white water rafting in her canoe and spend some time communing with nature , I can dig it. Seeking counsel from the wise old tree lady , again , groovy . But then there's that whole Mel Gibson thing ( and believe me , my distaste for him is a whole 'nother blog entirely ) but to their credit , at least they shot him ( he didn't die, but they shot him )and there was no talk of marriage . But our heroine is left noticeably un-fulfilled in the end and pining away on her cliff for of all things, A MAN . I will never understand why she couldn't just shrug her shoulders and be like , " well that was a learning experience " , and then just ride off into the sunset in her big-girl panties by her damn self. Would that have been so terrible ?
Esmeralda was a nice improvement , as she kicks ass and takes names on more than one occasion , and fiercely asserts her independence . This is good, but she still gets objectified by THREE men ( hunchback with a heart of gold, arrogant blonde who thinks he's gods gift, and creepy , creepy ,CREEPY Judge Frollo who just gives you the willies) To her credit , there is no marriage at the end , or even a definitive relationship. But she still requires a little too much saving . Then we have Mulan. Mulan , when it came out was the first time I ever left the theatre thinking , " well done Disney" , My only complaint is that they didn't just end the damn movie with her Saving all of China , and being honored by the Emperor . Nope, instead they had to deliver a friggin' man to her door. Yippee. Eventually we made our way to Princess Tiana, and by this point I was Taking my own munchkin to the movies . I felt it was very positive that instead of just sitting on her kiester and waiting for her dreams to come true , Tiana was willing to work , several jobs if need be to get what she wanted , and her focus was on her career , relationships ? Please ! Ain't nobody got time for that ! I enjoyed the message of the song, "dig a little deeper ", Mama Odie had a good point , and remains one of my all time favorite Disney Characters. Sadly though, this offering still ends in a wedding that turns this ordinary girl, into a princess. A little while later, they offered up "Tangled", and I enjoyed the tree climbing , hair swinging, barefoot, cast iron skillet wielding Rapunzel . That being said, for all their efforts at making it something else, it remained , the quintessential princess locked in a tower and in dire need of rescue from a man.
Last year , I finally got the pleasure of presenting my daughter with the Disney Princess i had waited 31 years for , and her name , is Merida. Merida looks like a normal girl, not all chiseled with a teeny-tiny waist , she chews with her mouth open, she belches, she has a sloppy rats nest for hair , and she leaves her weapons on the dinner table. You know what else ? She can out-shoot any man alive with her Bow , and can climb the friggin' fire-falls IN A DRESS ! She can hunt and catch her own food, and survive in the wilderness. Her whole trouble starts when she puts all the boys to shame by out-shooting them because she doesn't want to get married dammit ! By the end , not only has she saved herself, she has saved her whole damn family ! Even better , there is NO wedding, there is NO man . There is just her riding off into the sunset on her horse with her bow free to be her , and to find her own way , in her own time . It is beautiful. I damn near skipped out of the theatre after that one. I even drug Wednesday to see it TWICE !
Thank you Disney ! For finally serving up a Princess I could stand behind ! And thank you Diana, because when Wednesday told me "there aren't any real princesses" , I was able to tell her , " oh yes there are " , and use your bravery and humanitarian efforts to illustrate for her that true princesses are far more than just a title .
Here's hoping that this page that has been turned , this new chapter being written , will someday help parents raise a generation of strong , independent women .
And just for the record, sometimes your Prince charming is actually a Princess.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Time to eat crow ( otherwise entitled , " well don't I just feel like an ass now ")
A while back , Just before I started this whole blogging business, some of you may recall my mentioning some rather specific issues with our Vet on Facebook. For those who don't , let me give you the Cliff's Notes version.
I went to drop off Mrs. Dog for her appointment with the groomer but the clinic was closed ( i later discovered that they open later on fridays, but nobody told me , so I showed up wen the card said to, at 7:30 am. They opened at 9) I sent the Doc an E-mail about it, she apologized, no harm no foul. I e-mailed about re-scheduling, and I never heard back . A few weeks later , I did get an e-mail, but it was to remind me that the cats were due for their shots, still nothing about the dog. It was about this time that Miss Cat decided to go get stuck under the house an hour before their appointment , so I had to call and cancel. When I called to re-schedule the kitties shots, I decided that waiting almost a month to ask about Mrs. Dog's groom wasn't un-reasonable , I had been patient , so i asked.
I went to drop off Mrs. Dog for her appointment with the groomer but the clinic was closed ( i later discovered that they open later on fridays, but nobody told me , so I showed up wen the card said to, at 7:30 am. They opened at 9) I sent the Doc an E-mail about it, she apologized, no harm no foul. I e-mailed about re-scheduling, and I never heard back . A few weeks later , I did get an e-mail, but it was to remind me that the cats were due for their shots, still nothing about the dog. It was about this time that Miss Cat decided to go get stuck under the house an hour before their appointment , so I had to call and cancel. When I called to re-schedule the kitties shots, I decided that waiting almost a month to ask about Mrs. Dog's groom wasn't un-reasonable , I had been patient , so i asked.
Skunks LOVE peanut-butter !
This last week has been interesting and unusual for a number of reasons. Wednesday was with her father all week for one, we welcomed a kitchen aide stand mixer and a deep freeze to our home, our fence was completed (still waiting on the deck etc ) I got to have Brother Tom over for a nice long visit, and I got to See some seriously AMAZING theatre . And , Oh yeah, THE CRAWL-SPACE UNDER OUR HOUSE WAS INVADED BY SKUNKS !
Sunday, August 11, 2013
I'm Pretty sure I have ADD, and may be a little manic. . .
So, originally I was going to blog about the disturbance in the force that occurs whenever my ex-husband leaves his garage in Greenbay and starts driving to Oklahoma. Then, I acquired a family of skunks under my house , and thought "Hey, I will blog about that ! " Skunks are way more fun than boring peices about people you have been divorced from for FOREVER. But then something else happened , and I decided that it took the friggin' cake,and MUST be blogged about RIGHT NOW ! ( I probably have ADD and may actually be in the throes of some sort of manic episode right now, but seriously, quit diagnosing me and just fucking read will you dammit ?)
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
How Quiser got her Groove back :-)
So Last night , I was up WAY too late again on pintrest. However , by some miracle of God I still managed to get up in time to get Wednesday to daycare with 5 minutes to spare ! Bill and I managed a nice nap before moving the rest of everything out of the washroom , (that alone was pretty awesome ) . Hector actually showed up only 30 minutes later than promised , and within 15 minutes of his arrival I again had a functional kitchen sink with no leaks ! Yea ! (and bless him, he didn't even charge me ! ) ( you would have to know Hector to understand how truly rare it is that he does not charge , lol ! )
Monday, August 5, 2013
" The sweetest days of all . . ."
After Saturday turning into a nightmare , I guess Karma decided she owed me one. Sunday came and brought along with it the best church service I have attended in years , making several new friends at the fellowship luncheon , and even remembering to bring a dish as it's pot-luck ! I was back on my game ! We came home from a throughly delightful time at church , got comfortable , and headed out to Lowes to see about getting that washer and dryer replaced. To put it politely , I would have rather cheweed my right arm off than have to take her into a store of any kind right now, but this was something Bill and I had to do together, so there was no 'leave her at home ' option. I'm pretty sure she would have rather endured an all day bout of diarreah than go into 'the boring store' with us, but everyone is still alive, so it must not have been too bad.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Mama said there'd be days like this . . .
This morning (as on so many Saturday's ) I was awakened by being poked in the face at the ass-crack of dawn by chirpy, hyper little fingers . Naturally it was quite a puzzlement indeed to those little fingers , that I did not (having only been asleep a few short measly hours) jump straight up out of bed with a smile on my face and immediately commence making a five-star breakfast. What I did was throw on some yoga pants and a t-shirt and set about figuring out just how early the children had risen, and exactly how much damage had been inflicted upon my domicile. Judging by the view of the living room from the door of the kitchen, they had been up for quite a while , and having a party reminiscent of 'Animal House'.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Still learning my lessons . . .
For most of this week we have had Ellen back with us, and it has been pretty great, except for the fact that the new has Finally worn off her for Wednesday , so now we are acting like 'sisters', which equals out to quite a bit of bickering , but not enough for me to not keep Ellen anymore.On the bright side, Ellen had never seen Harry Potter, we have since remedied that situation with a week long Potter marathon, and it looks like we have a convert on our hands !
Earlier this week I started a round of antibiotics for an infection , I had been doing great about taking them one pill four times a day , until today . Today we had dog grooming , and a trip to the pool and a bunch of other crap planned , and I simply forgot. After our throwing-in-the-towel-on-dinner-and-just-going-out-for-chineese this evening , it dawned on me that I had missed them today. In one of the least brilliant moments of my life , I decided in order to maintain the theraputic levels , I would just take two of the little buggers and be done with it . ( this is the downside of not having 'worked' in the last two years, all my nursing skills have gone totally rusty , and apparently I have gone mental as well)
Earlier this week I started a round of antibiotics for an infection , I had been doing great about taking them one pill four times a day , until today . Today we had dog grooming , and a trip to the pool and a bunch of other crap planned , and I simply forgot. After our throwing-in-the-towel-on-dinner-and-just-going-out-for-chineese this evening , it dawned on me that I had missed them today. In one of the least brilliant moments of my life , I decided in order to maintain the theraputic levels , I would just take two of the little buggers and be done with it . ( this is the downside of not having 'worked' in the last two years, all my nursing skills have gone totally rusty , and apparently I have gone mental as well)
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