Tonight, the high school I live near held its graduation ceremony, outdoors and complete with loudspeakers. So, even though it was warm enough to have windows & screen doors open, I had the house shut up so I didn’t have to listen to endless trite commencement addresses. Don’t the people who give speeches at graduation ceremonies realize that the teenagers suffering through those speeches won’t recall any of it for more than 15 seconds?! All those kids care about is getting that diploma and hoping their parents won’t make them get a summer job so they can party until college and/or other entrances into the Real World.
I decided to update my guide to polyamory, tidying up broken links and streamlining some of my writing, plus adding a couple of links (and an excerpt) from one of the best essays on polyamory I’ve ever seen, Poly People I Can Do Without. Absolutely priceless. (That essay spotlights 90% of the reasons I’m not cheerfully eager to embrace the poly community.)
Wonderfully wicked quote for the day: “You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.”–Jessica Mitford
Oh, only eleven days until my birthday! But only three days until I get my next tattoo and a new kitten, so guess which day I’m probably gonna like better?
My long holiday weekend was fairly quiet, with Anxiety off at a medieval-recreation thing and Geoffrey playing a lot of Evercrack. Quiet makes me very happy. Here’s what I did all weekend:
- talked & laughed a lot with Jenn
- fussed over & watered my vegetable plants (which are getting huge!)
- got my house tidied up nicely
- smiled every time I recalled just exactly why my thighs were so achy
- watched a lot of the History Channel and Law & Order while crocheting
- watched a few atrocious SciFi Channel movies while cuddling with Geoffrey
- watched Brokeback Mountain (which was much better than I’d expected) while Geoffrey was busy killing stuff on Evercrack
- crocheted a lot & started yet another new project, which looks pretty nifty already
- chuckled every time I noticed the weather was chilly & damp, and thanked heavens I wasn’t foolish enough to be out camping in that!
- tried to think up names for the new baby (kitten, not infant!) before we get her
- talked & laughed a lot with Lyse
This has probably been the best Memorial Day weekend I’ve had in a decade, if not longer. No fuq’ing relationship drama, no idiotic SCA drama, no nasty drama of any kind. Just friends & laughter & love & contentedness — which I freaking well earned. Yay for getting what I deserve!
It’s hard to believe my dad is now 60. I still remember him as being a young, handsome blond man who looked like a cross between Henry Winkler and James Dean. He’s still handsome and mostly blond, even if he’s no longer crewing a submarine or kicking back on Waikiki Beach.
Happy Birthday, Dad!
Today would have been my late husband’s birthday. I suppose that, technically, it still is, but he’s not around to celebrate it — by his own choice.
You see, thirteen years ago, he shot himself in the head.
He’s missed out on so many wonderful things in life, not the least of which is watching his only daughter grow up to become such an amazing young woman. I haven’t heard from his first wife in years, but I’m certain that his sons (who are now 21 and 20) are also terrific young men. And what’s worse than Steve missing out on life, those three kids have missed out on having a father. He stole that from them.
Suicide isn’t just wrong. It’s a cowardly, cruel, and inexcusable betrayal of those who love the person who commits suicide. Anyone who might think the people in their life would be better off without them should rethink that — because the real truth is that actions speak louder than words, and if you genuinely love someone, you won’t cause them the horrific pain of your self-destruction.
If you’re having thoughts of hurting yourself or ending your life, call your local suicide helpline, or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Just don’t take that one action that you can’t change your mind about.
I’m continuing to enjoy childfree time, as both my offspring have gone to a medieval-recreation event called the Gathering. By the time they get back, on Memorial Day, I will have had 7 nights without spawn in the house. (If my head didn’t hurt, I’d be doing the Happy Dance of Solitude.)
That doesn’t mean they haven’t been home at all. Anxiety was on her school’s Marine Biology Field Trip in Rockaway, OR for 4 days/3 nights. They stayed at Camp McGruder, which is where I had Outdoor School way back in 6th grade. (Apparently, Outdoor School is not a common thing nationwide, but a much-cherished tradition in many schools in Oregon. At the end of 6th grade, students spend an entire week at a campsite with their teachers, learning about every subject you can imagine that can be taught hands-on in an outdoor setting — swimming & archery, botany & environmentalism, woods-craft & wilderness safety, wildlife biology, local geology, other natural sciences & practical applications of their lessons, including participating in the work it takes to feed & clean up after a few hundred people at a campsite.)
And now for something completely TMI…
While I blog here, I actually do have a website. I don’t update it as often as I should, but then I don’t often find new stuff to put on it. Last night I buckled down and went through every page and link, to make sure all broken links were removed and all the links to my email address were updated (previously, they’d gone to a Hotmail address that I haven’t had in many months).
120 web pages, and 4 hours later, I’m mostly happy with it. There were a few pages with numerous links to my old Diary-X journals, which had been toasted when that server failed, so I had to remove those. Grrrr. But I got rid of all the old SCA stuff (no sense in keeping it when I haven’t been to an event in nearly 3 years, and have no inclination to go again), except for a couple of links I promised someone I’d keep up indefinitely.
I haven’t gone through the images, other than the ones on my current web pages, so heaven only knows what dreck I’ve got in that folder. It will have to wait until I have a bit more energy & motivation…
According to the stats page that my Number One Internet Fanboy so thoughtfully provided to me (which I check about once a month, if I remember to that often), this blog gets about 4500-ish “numbers of visits” a month and about 2500-ish “unique visitors” a month. I don’t actually know what those terms mean, so largely this leaves me clueless — but for a hovering suspicion that (since the number of my relatives, friends, and acquaintances doesn’t even begin to approach 4-digits), people who’ve never actually met me probably read my blog.
I have absolutely no idea why this would be.
And now for something completely TMI…
My sleep schedule is, yet again, out of whack. This morning I had to drop off Anxiety for her 7th grade marine biology trip; she’ll be gone until Thursday afternoon. I really can’t take an auditorium full of hyper young teens and harried teachers before my first full cup of coffee. Bleah.
As a result of little sleep last night and getting up much earlier than I’m used to, I’ve been on the verge of falling asleep for 2 hours, and it’s just past 9 pm. Crocheting while snuggled with Geoffrey on the sofa is barely keeping me conscious. At least I’m reading a good book on my smoke breaks.
Normally I don’t blog right after I’ve just blogged, but I was reading my LJ friends page, and had to link this. No really, go click on those links. The Scots Wikipedia is priceless! (And, despite being a mom and the longtime lover of a porn store clerk, I only got 8 out of 15 correct on the “Sex Toy or Baby Toy?” quiz. Damn.)
Anthony is one of the sexiest minds I’ve ever met online, and he’s probably my oldest online friend. (And just what is it about guys named Anthony?! I swear, they’re all too damned sexy for my own good.)
Every now & then I actually check my gmail account, and once in a blue moon there’s an email that I have a message at okCupid. My profile there is much briefer than it used to be, because I have little (okay, zero) faith in the ability of an online “match” site to perform its purported function. But if I’m in a friendly mood and see a random profile which I find interesting enough, I’ll dash off a quick message along the lines of “You have a nifty profile.”
What are the chances that someone I sent one of those messages to is in the SCA and has the same first name of one of my ex’s that I met in the SCA? I’m seriously considering this as a message from the Universe At Large that I should not be all that friendly online.
Other than that, the highlight of my weekend has been reading to my demonspawn (yes, I know she’s 13, but I still like to read to her at bedtime…although we’ve graduated from Dr. Seuss to Anne McCaffrey), and shrieking in laughter at the hilariously bad earthquake movie 10.5 (which is apparently its level of cinematic quality on a scale of 1 to 1000). I will be watching the sequel Sunday night, not because I’m a glutton for punishment, but because it’s so wrongly amusing and I don’t care if I miss part of it due to paying more attention to my crocheting. Oh, the joy & excitement of my life.
Then again, it sure beats time spent with any number of ex’s from the SCA.
