Monday, January 31, 2011
Wanted: Environmentally-Friendly Case for Birth Control Pills.
It is so bothersome for me that my birth control pills come with so much garbage. Every prescription comes with a separate sleeve that is not recyclable. You mean to tell me that pharmaceutical companies can’t even make a sustainable container?? Or won't they?? Why do they give out a plastic envelope with every refill?? It’s just wasteful.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Bubbies Can Be Shit-Talkers, Too.
I love deep-water aerobics. The back-story goes like this: when I was fifteen I sustained a bad back injury doing gymnastics. Because I’m me, I refused to stop doing gymnastics even though I was in constant pain, until I got a solid diagnosis and was told to stop. So, I trained and competed on a excruciatingly painful stress fracture in my L6 vertebrae for five months. When I came home from the gym I barely moved, but all I wanted to do was go back to the gym the next day. Dealing with the psychological side of being that injured was not something I knew how to handle, and so I denied that I could possibly be seriously injured until my mom finally found a doctor who told me to stop, immediately; that I had done serious damage and without serious rehab I would have back problems for the rest of my life.
Being out of the gym for ten months drove me stir crazy!! I started partying more with my friends, people I’d seen much less of when I spent my time in the gym. I also got medical clearance to go to deep-water aerobics, since it is no-impact. It took some getting used to, but after a while I really started to enjoy it and get good at it. I still love it to this day, despite the fact that most of the people who do deep-water aerobics are between the ages of 80 and 100. I love deep-water aerobics and I don’t care who knows it!!
Anyway, so today, after the dreaded conversation with my financial counselor at school (which I won’t get into), I went to the pool, only to find that the price of a class has been raised a dollar. Eff. So, I’ll be going to classes less frequently. That’s just what it is. But I digress. So, I get into the water and people look at me funny. This I’m used to. I’m thirty-one, am regularly told I don’t look thirty-one, and work out in teeny bikinis usually not worn by individuals over the age or 25. The tattoos and the unusual hair seem to grab people’s attention more than I would like, and I get some dirty looks, some compliments and some people who look at me like I should be on the six o'clock news, holding a placard under my mug shot for public urination or grand theft boating, or some such thing.
So, today I’m in the pool and I’m working out next to this little lady who keeps casting sidelong glances at me. She’s talking to a friend of hers, a man, and she asked him about his tattoo. He explained that he got it when he was in the Navy, in his youth back in WWI, or whatever. Then she looks directly at me and says “some people are going to wonder why they did these things to themselves when they’re our age,” sneered at me, and went back to her friend.
Now, wait a minute. I’ve had shit talked to my face before, but never by a sweet-looking grandmother whom I've never met and who looks like she should be baking cookies with cherub-faced children in a Nestle Toll House commercial. If I hadn’t been in the water, my jaw would have dropped. That bubby just talked shit to me!! I thought about saying something directly to her, like “if I lived my life only doing things I thought I’d be pleased with myself for by the time I’m your age, then I would never do anything,” but I didn’t. I respected my elder and kept my damn mouth shut. See?? I can do it. Other people just don’t notice it because if I’m quiet it usually means I’m asleep or simply not paying attention.
The day has continued to not just go downhill but spiral completely out of fuck control. Perhaps after I had a bubby talk shit to me this morning I should have taken it as a sign that I should go home and go back to bed and try again tomorrow??
Being out of the gym for ten months drove me stir crazy!! I started partying more with my friends, people I’d seen much less of when I spent my time in the gym. I also got medical clearance to go to deep-water aerobics, since it is no-impact. It took some getting used to, but after a while I really started to enjoy it and get good at it. I still love it to this day, despite the fact that most of the people who do deep-water aerobics are between the ages of 80 and 100. I love deep-water aerobics and I don’t care who knows it!!
Anyway, so today, after the dreaded conversation with my financial counselor at school (which I won’t get into), I went to the pool, only to find that the price of a class has been raised a dollar. Eff. So, I’ll be going to classes less frequently. That’s just what it is. But I digress. So, I get into the water and people look at me funny. This I’m used to. I’m thirty-one, am regularly told I don’t look thirty-one, and work out in teeny bikinis usually not worn by individuals over the age or 25. The tattoos and the unusual hair seem to grab people’s attention more than I would like, and I get some dirty looks, some compliments and some people who look at me like I should be on the six o'clock news, holding a placard under my mug shot for public urination or grand theft boating, or some such thing.
So, today I’m in the pool and I’m working out next to this little lady who keeps casting sidelong glances at me. She’s talking to a friend of hers, a man, and she asked him about his tattoo. He explained that he got it when he was in the Navy, in his youth back in WWI, or whatever. Then she looks directly at me and says “some people are going to wonder why they did these things to themselves when they’re our age,” sneered at me, and went back to her friend.
Now, wait a minute. I’ve had shit talked to my face before, but never by a sweet-looking grandmother whom I've never met and who looks like she should be baking cookies with cherub-faced children in a Nestle Toll House commercial. If I hadn’t been in the water, my jaw would have dropped. That bubby just talked shit to me!! I thought about saying something directly to her, like “if I lived my life only doing things I thought I’d be pleased with myself for by the time I’m your age, then I would never do anything,” but I didn’t. I respected my elder and kept my damn mouth shut. See?? I can do it. Other people just don’t notice it because if I’m quiet it usually means I’m asleep or simply not paying attention.
The day has continued to not just go downhill but spiral completely out of fuck control. Perhaps after I had a bubby talk shit to me this morning I should have taken it as a sign that I should go home and go back to bed and try again tomorrow??
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Addendum: Children and Food Labels
There is one more personal anecdote I would like to add to my last post.
I have a daughter who is thirteen. Last year, while she was still twelve, we went to the grocery store and were picking out a salad dressing. Now, dressing is not a particularly healthy thing to consume. Anyone who can read a label knows this, whether they acknowledge it or not. So, we were picking what kind of dressing we wanted and comparing nutrition labels. You know; calories per serving, grams of fat. My mom has had issues with high cholesterol and high blood pressure in the past. Nothing to write home about, but enough to where I feel like I can teach my daughter what those things are and what they mean nutritionally, so we were looking at cholesterol and sodium as well. I thought we were having an interesting conversation; organic vs synthetic, local vs big brand, less expensive vs more expensive. Then this woman slams down a bottle of dressing in her cart. I turn to look. She makes direct eye contact, cocks her head, scoffs and stomps off. I look at my daughter. Anyone who knows me knows she’s tiny, and anyone who knows her knows she’s athletic. I can no longer give my friends my daughter’s old clothes, even to the seven-year-olds, because my thirteen-year-old is smaller than they are. She is not now, nor has she ever been, failure to thrive. She just came from a family of really tiny people and, as such, is really tiny. Her mother, at a massive 5’5” and 115 is taller than her father, though not by much. So, the kid’s small. BFD. Her entire life I’ve had random strangers in stores tell me I’m mistreating my child because she’s always looked younger than she is. Here I am trying to teach her how to read food labels, a skill everyone should have and that a twelve-year-old is mature enough to begin learning about, and this bitch is passing judgment like I’m a pageant mom trying to make sure my eight-year-old doesn’t eat salad dressing that’s too high in fat content. So, you can’t win for losing, sometimes. At least someone out there gave a shit whether she knew what she was thinking or not.
I, personally, believe that more parents should be teaching their children how to read nutrition labels and to make smart food choices, but what the hell do I know?? To some, I’m a skinny liberal bitch teaching her eight-year-old to shun calories.
I have a daughter who is thirteen. Last year, while she was still twelve, we went to the grocery store and were picking out a salad dressing. Now, dressing is not a particularly healthy thing to consume. Anyone who can read a label knows this, whether they acknowledge it or not. So, we were picking what kind of dressing we wanted and comparing nutrition labels. You know; calories per serving, grams of fat. My mom has had issues with high cholesterol and high blood pressure in the past. Nothing to write home about, but enough to where I feel like I can teach my daughter what those things are and what they mean nutritionally, so we were looking at cholesterol and sodium as well. I thought we were having an interesting conversation; organic vs synthetic, local vs big brand, less expensive vs more expensive. Then this woman slams down a bottle of dressing in her cart. I turn to look. She makes direct eye contact, cocks her head, scoffs and stomps off. I look at my daughter. Anyone who knows me knows she’s tiny, and anyone who knows her knows she’s athletic. I can no longer give my friends my daughter’s old clothes, even to the seven-year-olds, because my thirteen-year-old is smaller than they are. She is not now, nor has she ever been, failure to thrive. She just came from a family of really tiny people and, as such, is really tiny. Her mother, at a massive 5’5” and 115 is taller than her father, though not by much. So, the kid’s small. BFD. Her entire life I’ve had random strangers in stores tell me I’m mistreating my child because she’s always looked younger than she is. Here I am trying to teach her how to read food labels, a skill everyone should have and that a twelve-year-old is mature enough to begin learning about, and this bitch is passing judgment like I’m a pageant mom trying to make sure my eight-year-old doesn’t eat salad dressing that’s too high in fat content. So, you can’t win for losing, sometimes. At least someone out there gave a shit whether she knew what she was thinking or not.
I, personally, believe that more parents should be teaching their children how to read nutrition labels and to make smart food choices, but what the hell do I know?? To some, I’m a skinny liberal bitch teaching her eight-year-old to shun calories.
Apparently There IS No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.
I’m still pretty uneducated on the whole school lunch ideas that the Obama administration is pushing around, I admit, but from what I’ve read I don’t understand why so many people are so pissed off. I really don’t. And to be honest, most of the people I’ve sat and listened to bitch and moan are a) wealthy as fuck and b) would hate the president if he deigned to say that the sky was blue or that puppies are cute. Suffice to say, if you are wealthy enough to feed your children and smart enough to not overload them with junk food, then this new law is not directed at you. Okay?? So back the fuck off, because there are people out there who need what’s being offered them. I know how much y’all jus’ love to make sure that the have-nots remain the have-nots, but seriously. What is your damage, Heather?? Healthier lunches made available to low-income school children?? That’s a fuckin’ problem?? Oil your knees, grow a heart, obtain a brain and STFU because if you think this is a bad thing then you have no soul.
I’ve worked and socialized with children and families who come from all kinds of backgrounds. Or, as we’re supposed to say, “socioeconomic status.” At one point I was teaching preschool full-time at an establishment in Seattle which accepted a large number of DSHS children while working part-time teaching athletics at a private facility that is not known for being inexpensive, if you smell what I’m cookin’. It was an interesting time for me, especially as a broke single mom who had chosen poorly at her career (teaching), who lived well below the poverty level for both the city and the nation, had a baby daddy whose family wiped their asses with $100 bills while I was still taking classes part time at the community college.
I observed some interesting behavior when it came to food and parenting. The wealthy gave all: hot dogs, chips, milkshakes, French fries, pastries. No matter the circumstances or the time of day, child gets what child wants. For example, my own daughter was fortunate enough to be granted ice skating lessons by her grandmother, which meant sitting at the arena with her grandmother’s friends and their competitive skater children who inhaled pizza and doughnuts immediately before practice and considered me a food tyrant for giving my daughter fruit, crackers or veggies with peanut butter and water or juice before skating and allowing her to have pizza after. I heard what people said behind my back: I’d been a gymnast and that obviously made me an anorexic and therefore I could not possibly know how to feed myself, let alone a child. My mind railed against these stupid bitches!! When had they ever been athletes?? When had they ever eaten McDonald’s right before practice and went the whole afternoon with a stomach ache because of it?? They looked like all they ate was pizza and doughnuts. And who died and made them the food police?? If my kid is going to be an athlete, she should learn to eat like one. That did not and does not mean no pizza and doughnuts ever; it meant no pizza and doughnuts until after practice. What’s so mean about that I’m not sure I’ll ever understand, save for the fact that it’s not how the older, richer in-vitro moms fed their children.
When I began more full-time work with children again, I saw things that were even more disturbing. One week I would be working at the preschool, where one family was so poor they sent their two children to school with a lunch in one brown bag: two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on not dog buns. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, as a single mom there were times I’ve had to be creative with my daughter’s lunch, and times when I’ve had to send her to school without a lunch knowing that the school has an emergency lunch program that isn’t going to allow her to starve. Of course, they send you a bill at the end of the year, but I digress. So, on one hand it was sweet that this mother made the effort. That is not, however, a sufficient meal for children in full-time preschool. So, the food that had meant to be used exclusively for snack time was used to feed the really poor kids. Which, of course, meant less for the kids who threw away half of their lunches because they didn’t feel like eating pears that day, but really. In all fairness, it is the right of families to purchase food and have kids throw it away. Even at a low-income-friendly school. It’s heartbreaking, but it’s true. Obviously no school subsidized lunch program was offered, but when one child wastes while another child wants (or needs), it’s difficult to watch.
In the wealthier of the two environments, I would spend a week coaching athletic camps, fun camps, and almost every child signed up had a food allergy. (Care to wager how many of the low-income kids at the preschool had food allergies??) Half the kids had access to their parents’ member accounts and would purchase food the camp leaders had been told not to give them. Celiac disease?? My auntie. The kid who’s supposedly allergic to gluten just downed three hot dogs with buns, a bowl of mac and cheese and tried to sneak Mountain Dew from the fountain after the other leaders and I had restricted them to lemonade, water along with one paper cup of sprite each. Fortunately, no one got sick, no one told their parents about the crap they sneaked and charged to their parents’ accounts, and no one got in trouble. However, my astonishment at the lengths I’ve seen these kids go to just to have the junk food that they want remains, and I see very few adults saying no to these kids. I thought I was being the food police; making sure no one ate anything they were “allergic” to or didn’t have at least some nutritional benefit, or had beverages that had too much sugar or caffeine. And the longer I’ve worked at this establishment I’ve seen how indulged some of these kids really are. Every time I see them eat, they’re eating junk food. These are children whose parents can (and likely do) buy local and organic, which is something that low-income people can’t always afford to do because it’s so damned expensive, and their kids are scarfing hot dogs and Pepsi and no one is saying anything to the kids. For a time I thought that kids who are shitty food were from families who couldn’t afford healthy food, because let’s face it, healthy food is hella more expensive, but they’re not. They’re from families with educated parents, who should know better, who want their children to be athletes and serve them muy burgers and fries just as often as they are from lower-income families.
So the poor are too poor to feed their kids, which has a lot to do with the rate of childhood obesity in America. Yet, the wealthy don’t seem to give much of a damn what their kids eat. Do they think it’s all gravy (pardon the pun)?? That they’ll be able to afford dieticians and fat farms for their kids when they don’t know how to control or regulate their food intake then they’re older?? Who is teaching the rich kids that three hot dogs is not the correct portion, and who is sharing one with the poor kid who doesn’t have one??
At no point would I presume to say that all parents, of any income bracket, do not know how to feed their children. That is not the point I’m trying to make at all, and if you think it is then you haven’t been paying attention. Kids out there need guidance they are evidently not getting from their parents. Not all kids, but kids. Teachers talk about good nutritional habits, but not everyone in the world can afford them. We are adults, and our job as adults and as parents is to stand up for these kids and do what’s right for them even if it may not be right for us. It’s called being an adult, being a parent, and participating in the health and growth of the society in which you live.
And no, I’m not a socialist, but the more right wing, conservative, tea party propaganda I read about and hear makes me beg for Emma Goldman to rise from the great beyond and start kicking some ass.
Working with older kids, I’ve had the displeasure of hearing the horror stories of what the public schools offer to middle and high schoolers for lunch. One local middle school had a coffee cart, but they had to limit the consumption of coffee drinks to the cafeteria because children were buying coffees, taking them into the hallways and dumping them around; making messes and vandalizing the lockers of kids they didn’t like. Yeah. Middle school kids. Being served lattes and cappuccinos and mochas at school. Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks that’s fucked up and actually sees the problem here?? Other kids admitted to me that their parents packed them lunches that they threw away and used money to buy chips, soft drinks, doughnuts, coffee, fries. I knew these kids parents. Some of them were not allowed to have Gatorade at gymnastics class, yet they were tossing out their lunches in favor of crap.
So, yeah. Something needs to be done. Whether you feel like you’re teaching you children good habits or not, if they have the option to pitch their lunch in a trash can and mow down burritos so unhealthy even Taco Bell would say “hey, that’s just fucked up,” then they’re going to take it. These vending and a la carte options must be scrapped, and that’s something that this new law is trying to make happen. Why is that bad?? What would you rather have your kid be offered as a snack when they’re away from you: an apple or a bag of chips??
While I understand that some people feel like their intelligence is being insulted and their parenting methods undermined, fuckin’ deal!! As Americans, we embarrass ourselves every damn day and pretty much deserve to have our intelligence insulted. But this is for our kids: ALL of them, not just yours, you bourgeois geek. If you pulled your head out of your ass long enough to read something other than the GOP website, perhaps you’d understand that.
Anyway.
At ease.
Bill O’Reilly is on line one.
I’ve worked and socialized with children and families who come from all kinds of backgrounds. Or, as we’re supposed to say, “socioeconomic status.” At one point I was teaching preschool full-time at an establishment in Seattle which accepted a large number of DSHS children while working part-time teaching athletics at a private facility that is not known for being inexpensive, if you smell what I’m cookin’. It was an interesting time for me, especially as a broke single mom who had chosen poorly at her career (teaching), who lived well below the poverty level for both the city and the nation, had a baby daddy whose family wiped their asses with $100 bills while I was still taking classes part time at the community college.
I observed some interesting behavior when it came to food and parenting. The wealthy gave all: hot dogs, chips, milkshakes, French fries, pastries. No matter the circumstances or the time of day, child gets what child wants. For example, my own daughter was fortunate enough to be granted ice skating lessons by her grandmother, which meant sitting at the arena with her grandmother’s friends and their competitive skater children who inhaled pizza and doughnuts immediately before practice and considered me a food tyrant for giving my daughter fruit, crackers or veggies with peanut butter and water or juice before skating and allowing her to have pizza after. I heard what people said behind my back: I’d been a gymnast and that obviously made me an anorexic and therefore I could not possibly know how to feed myself, let alone a child. My mind railed against these stupid bitches!! When had they ever been athletes?? When had they ever eaten McDonald’s right before practice and went the whole afternoon with a stomach ache because of it?? They looked like all they ate was pizza and doughnuts. And who died and made them the food police?? If my kid is going to be an athlete, she should learn to eat like one. That did not and does not mean no pizza and doughnuts ever; it meant no pizza and doughnuts until after practice. What’s so mean about that I’m not sure I’ll ever understand, save for the fact that it’s not how the older, richer in-vitro moms fed their children.
When I began more full-time work with children again, I saw things that were even more disturbing. One week I would be working at the preschool, where one family was so poor they sent their two children to school with a lunch in one brown bag: two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on not dog buns. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, as a single mom there were times I’ve had to be creative with my daughter’s lunch, and times when I’ve had to send her to school without a lunch knowing that the school has an emergency lunch program that isn’t going to allow her to starve. Of course, they send you a bill at the end of the year, but I digress. So, on one hand it was sweet that this mother made the effort. That is not, however, a sufficient meal for children in full-time preschool. So, the food that had meant to be used exclusively for snack time was used to feed the really poor kids. Which, of course, meant less for the kids who threw away half of their lunches because they didn’t feel like eating pears that day, but really. In all fairness, it is the right of families to purchase food and have kids throw it away. Even at a low-income-friendly school. It’s heartbreaking, but it’s true. Obviously no school subsidized lunch program was offered, but when one child wastes while another child wants (or needs), it’s difficult to watch.
In the wealthier of the two environments, I would spend a week coaching athletic camps, fun camps, and almost every child signed up had a food allergy. (Care to wager how many of the low-income kids at the preschool had food allergies??) Half the kids had access to their parents’ member accounts and would purchase food the camp leaders had been told not to give them. Celiac disease?? My auntie. The kid who’s supposedly allergic to gluten just downed three hot dogs with buns, a bowl of mac and cheese and tried to sneak Mountain Dew from the fountain after the other leaders and I had restricted them to lemonade, water along with one paper cup of sprite each. Fortunately, no one got sick, no one told their parents about the crap they sneaked and charged to their parents’ accounts, and no one got in trouble. However, my astonishment at the lengths I’ve seen these kids go to just to have the junk food that they want remains, and I see very few adults saying no to these kids. I thought I was being the food police; making sure no one ate anything they were “allergic” to or didn’t have at least some nutritional benefit, or had beverages that had too much sugar or caffeine. And the longer I’ve worked at this establishment I’ve seen how indulged some of these kids really are. Every time I see them eat, they’re eating junk food. These are children whose parents can (and likely do) buy local and organic, which is something that low-income people can’t always afford to do because it’s so damned expensive, and their kids are scarfing hot dogs and Pepsi and no one is saying anything to the kids. For a time I thought that kids who are shitty food were from families who couldn’t afford healthy food, because let’s face it, healthy food is hella more expensive, but they’re not. They’re from families with educated parents, who should know better, who want their children to be athletes and serve them muy burgers and fries just as often as they are from lower-income families.
So the poor are too poor to feed their kids, which has a lot to do with the rate of childhood obesity in America. Yet, the wealthy don’t seem to give much of a damn what their kids eat. Do they think it’s all gravy (pardon the pun)?? That they’ll be able to afford dieticians and fat farms for their kids when they don’t know how to control or regulate their food intake then they’re older?? Who is teaching the rich kids that three hot dogs is not the correct portion, and who is sharing one with the poor kid who doesn’t have one??
At no point would I presume to say that all parents, of any income bracket, do not know how to feed their children. That is not the point I’m trying to make at all, and if you think it is then you haven’t been paying attention. Kids out there need guidance they are evidently not getting from their parents. Not all kids, but kids. Teachers talk about good nutritional habits, but not everyone in the world can afford them. We are adults, and our job as adults and as parents is to stand up for these kids and do what’s right for them even if it may not be right for us. It’s called being an adult, being a parent, and participating in the health and growth of the society in which you live.
And no, I’m not a socialist, but the more right wing, conservative, tea party propaganda I read about and hear makes me beg for Emma Goldman to rise from the great beyond and start kicking some ass.
Working with older kids, I’ve had the displeasure of hearing the horror stories of what the public schools offer to middle and high schoolers for lunch. One local middle school had a coffee cart, but they had to limit the consumption of coffee drinks to the cafeteria because children were buying coffees, taking them into the hallways and dumping them around; making messes and vandalizing the lockers of kids they didn’t like. Yeah. Middle school kids. Being served lattes and cappuccinos and mochas at school. Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks that’s fucked up and actually sees the problem here?? Other kids admitted to me that their parents packed them lunches that they threw away and used money to buy chips, soft drinks, doughnuts, coffee, fries. I knew these kids parents. Some of them were not allowed to have Gatorade at gymnastics class, yet they were tossing out their lunches in favor of crap.
So, yeah. Something needs to be done. Whether you feel like you’re teaching you children good habits or not, if they have the option to pitch their lunch in a trash can and mow down burritos so unhealthy even Taco Bell would say “hey, that’s just fucked up,” then they’re going to take it. These vending and a la carte options must be scrapped, and that’s something that this new law is trying to make happen. Why is that bad?? What would you rather have your kid be offered as a snack when they’re away from you: an apple or a bag of chips??
While I understand that some people feel like their intelligence is being insulted and their parenting methods undermined, fuckin’ deal!! As Americans, we embarrass ourselves every damn day and pretty much deserve to have our intelligence insulted. But this is for our kids: ALL of them, not just yours, you bourgeois geek. If you pulled your head out of your ass long enough to read something other than the GOP website, perhaps you’d understand that.
Anyway.
At ease.
Bill O’Reilly is on line one.
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