I will be a rock star parent

Despite some occasional fears about my ability to be a good parent, as each day passes and I see/read what other people do with their children, I realize that I will be a rock-star parent when given the chance.

A US soldier is charged with assault after waterboarding his child.  For not reciting the ABCs.

Waterboarding.  A four-year old.

For not saying her letters.

A teacher today told me that she heard of a parent who took her young children to a self-service car wash and sprayed the kids with the water for a punishment. As though she is a cop from the 1950s and 1960s.

What?!

I will be grand at parenting.

I understand that kids can be frustrating at times.  I have seen them in public, I have baby sat them, I teach over 100 of them each semester every school year.

I know I will be at better than these and other people.  Including the pastor who pulled a gun on his kid due to the kids lack of attendance at church.  Or the parent who executed his naked son over an argument.

Haiti needs help - be careful how you give it

My thoughts keep getting back to the people in Haiti for many reasons.  One is the damage that has occurred due to the earthquake this week.  Another reason is because I have long been questioning what has been going on with regard to aid in that nation.  As the news keeps announcing, they are the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. 

They are also a large recipient of aid from various nations and organizations throughout the world.  From 1990-2003 they received over $4 billion in aid.

I am by no means saying that they don't need help, but I am saying we really need to be thinking about and addressing what is going on in that nation and with the people trying to help them.

If you want to give them aid at this time, please read on and really look into what you are doing and who you are doing it through.  You can use charitynavigator.org and guidestar to check on the status and spending of organizations you wish to donate to or that you wish to know more about.

A lot of the aid they receive comes from Non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  These sort of organizations have a history of aid, but also are so large that at times they are not really giving as much money as people think to the "charities" they are supposed to be supporting. 

They are organizations who use their money to basically promote their liberal ideology.

They help those who they feel are less off than themselves.  It is the same as people in this nation who basically give money to charities.  They give money, they give water, they give food, they give used or new clothes -- all helping them to feel better about themselves.  If they give a little to help the lesser of those, then it does not really hurt for them to live in their fancy homes.  It is ok for them to eat at fancy places.  It is acceptable for them to by clothes, cars, and other items in excess.  

They provide aid, but are not really addressing the problem.  Most of these organizations are not doing anything to really solve the problems.  They are not helping the people to gain jobs.  They may help some one learn to farm (which is great), but they are not helping them to be able to transport their food to various parts of their nation so that they can help sustain more people.  

The typical solutions are not sustainable. 

Aid agencies and foreign governments often do not fully involve the local leaders in making decisions about what will truly help the nation succeed.

And with Haiti, although there were 28 countries gathered together spring 2009 for the International Donor's Conference who agreed to provide the island nation with $353 million to help reduce poverty, there is really not much to show for all the aid that has been given to them over all these years.

I believe it ties back to the start of the nation.  It is a proud history for them as the enslaved people of Haiti were able to overthrow their oppressors back in 1791.  They were named a republic officially in 1804.  They had been ruled by the French and the French were not easily going to give up a colony of theirs full of people they could force to work and build the imperial status of France.  They demanded for Haiti to pay the French government 150 million gold francs (which in today's dollars would be about $20 billion).  The Haitians spent over 100 years trying to pay this off since they felt it would help them become stable since they would gain acknowledgment and acceptance from the major powers if they completed paying the money out.

That is a lot of debt.  They still have a lot of debt to this day. The debt was at around $1.4 billion in the early part of 2009.  Last year, the US canceled $1.2 billion of the debt.  But that is after they have been working to repay that debt for so long. 

Think of what they could have been doing with the money they have had to be paying back to various nations.  Think of what they could have done to help their nation if they were not busy using (probably aid money) funds to repay nations.

Some nations, including Haiti have a history of some corruption.  

That is not an excuse for them, and it is not a reason to stop trying to help them out of their situation.  

It is a reason to have donors hold the government accountable to the money that is given to them.  

How do you keep giving nations money and the people see nothing from it.  

Like I said earlier, in just a 13 year period, the island of Haiti received over $4 billion.  Think how the people's lives could have been improved if that money had just been distributed to the people.  The nation is one that has not enough food produced on their land to sustain the people.  According to USAID 54% of Haitians live on just over 50 cents a day, unemployment is between 70-80% and over 40% of the people there do not have access to drinkable water.

Providing the people with health services is great, but we need to help them so that they can help themselves.  They need to be taught skills that will help them in the future to be able to build their infrastructure and develop jobs and have an education.  Most of the people there do not have higher than a primary education and only about 52% of the adults over 15 are fully literate.  According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, about 30% of Haiti's GDP comes from Haitians living and working abroad sending money back home to their relations.

They need more than just food and water and vaccines.

And they need it from more than the numerous nations that are supposedly helping Haiti.  Seriously.  Look at this massive list of NGOs that are said to be aiding Haiti in some way.  Look how many organizations there are, but what do they have to show for their "aid".

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs says that "[P]art of the problem begins with the widespread notion that over half of international aid goes toward NGO 'overhead' costs."

So be careful when you donate to some of these organizations.  They are basically taking your money and paying themselves with most of it rather than distributing it to the people they are saying they are helping. 

Makes sense with regard to Haiti's situation.  Look at that NGO list again.  If all of them are supposed to be giving money or some other sort of aid to Haiti, how is Haiti broke and still in dire conditions?

Also from the Council on Hemispheric Affairs site:

Roger Annis, of the Toronto Haiti Action Committee (THAC) professed that during a 2007 visit to the island, his entourage was repeatedly appealed to by locals to publically disseminate news of the failure of aid programs in order to bring about significant solutions to development issues. “I saw no evidence of Canadian aid programs reaching that desperately poor population,” alleged Annis. The underlying reason that aid is often ineffective is that it is simply not reaching the people on the ground. In addition to holding aid agencies accountable for their commitments, incorporating local communities into the decision of how best to use aid is an approach that could readily improve the effectiveness of the distributed funds.

The work being done is not really getting to the people.  The aid agencies are somehow getting donations, saying they are going to help, but really not doing much.

Top that with the different leaders of Haiti that have dug into the coffers and helped themselves to various funds leaving most of their people suffering.

Peter Mott of Interconnect Newsletter said of some of the aid missions that

With 9,000 soldiers from 42 countries, led by Brazil, the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH) has spent $2 billion fielding armed patrols throughout Haitian poor neighborhoods to repress and intimidate the people, arbitrarily killing civilians, and sometimes sexually assaulting young girls and women.  In the meantime, the economic conditions worsen and the basic needs of the population remain unmet.

 There has to be a better way.

I hope that as you reach out to help the Haitians in their time of need, that you really think about who you are giving money to -- research the organization to find out what they actually do with their money.

Check out the video on Guernicamag.com about aid giving and its impact.

Here is some Haitian history from the Haitian Blogger and you can see recent updates on from the Haitian Blogger.

Another great link with information on the US involvement in Haiti is the Haitisolidarity.net - including information on Aristide.

And please don't see the situation as Pat Robertson does -- what a prick.

Thanks for reading my rant.

Addendum:

Here is a link to some information on what Wyclef Jean has done with his donations in the past.  Just what I talked about here. Not sure if this is some sort of action to attack him and get people to not give to his organization or what.  I just hope that money gets to the people and the people that can help the people.

I will look like a crack head by days' end

Today I did the unthinkable, the unforgivable, the inconceivable.

Last week I worked Monday with no students, and then had students only Tuesday and Wednesday.  It was a nice way to ease back into this teaching thing after winter vacation.

But it has thrown off my routine in many ways.  I am sleeping way later than I need to be for someone who wakes around 5:30.  I became adjusted to eating breakfast around 9 or ten, which means that I am not really that hungry at 6, so I don't eat a lot and then am starving by 9:30.  I am used to taking naps around 2, so when school gets close to being out, I am not sure if I will be fully capable of driving home adequately.

The worst thing of all, though is what happened this morning for which I will suffer the rest of the day.

I am a lover of hydration and a lover of moist, supple, hydrated, soft lips.

Unfortunately, I left home with no type of lip balm/Chap-Aid/lip gloss/Carmex/petroleum jelly/C.O. Bigelow lip shine.  I took out the spares over break to put in the bags I was carrying around.  For some reason I don't even have the spare I usually keep in the coat pocket.

Even when my lips are not dry, I apply product at least every two hours just to make sure that there is no possibility of crackage.  There is nothing worse than seeing people with dry, ashy looking lips.  Well, there is one thing -- having those lips yourself.

I am fearing for my sanity at this point.

I applied some generic vaseline-type product this morning before I left the house, but that was at 6:15.  It is now 10 and I am not sure if I can make it.

My lips are already feeling the pressure of not being moistened.  I am trying to up my water intake, but that seems to make them drier as the water touches these fine lips and evaporates.  I am tempted to lick them and purse them together to maybe force some moisture into them somehow.  I am hoping that at least when I have lunch, the extra grease from the taco-like lunch I prepared from home will be temporarily soothing.

I am not one to share lip products as I never know who has some sort of mouth ailment that they may spread to me through their product.

I don't have a prep hour today so can't even make a quick run to the convenience store nearby.

I may have to succumb and use that old method I saw on Oprah once about using the grease from the back of your ears or the side of your nostril to moisten your lips.  Though, upon checking, there is not much there since I am pretty adamant about scrubbing those areas clean and my skin has not been as oily as it gets in the summer time.

I really fear the cracks and tears, the pain, and the inevitable crack-head looking lips that could ensue with no relief to my lips.

By lunch time I am sure that I will not be able to smile or say words that require a lot of lip stretching.

I hope I can make it.

And I hope that as I drive home looking kind of tired, I don't get pulled over by a cop who mistakes me for a burnt-out-ashy-lipped-unsmiling crack head.

Addendum:
It was suggested that I apply lotion to my chaps.

Unfortunately I don't have that either.  I am hoping that I don't have to use the bathroom today and that I don't touch any students and don't touch anything that they have sneezed on and don't touch the railings as I walk down the stairs.

I am also hoping that I don't completely look like I have been punching flower by the end of the day.

I may have to borrow one of the students' over scented fruity/flowery lotions.

Snow and windows

It has been nice being off these two days.  When it started snowing I was working the score table for the school's basketball game.  Got to see an old friend who coaches for the opposing team.  Nice.

The drive home and driving since has been ok, but there is one thing that really annoys me about people who drive in/when it snows/has snowed.

I understand that it is annoying to have to clean off the car if you do not have the luxury of a garage/car port/covered parking.  But, for real, it is not that difficult.

It bothers me when people don't wipe down the top of their cars or the trunk.  The spewing of dust is one thing, but when the stuff starts to freeze, it turns to ice.  I have had several occasions where I had ice crusts come soaring toward my car and had to swerve (almost causing an accident) to make sure the chunk did not break through my window.  I have had one occasion where I couldn't swerve and it did hit the glass causing a huge crack in the window.

Please, take the extra three minutes to dust off the whole car.  It's not like shoveling snow -- you will not have a heart attack by reaching up a little bit.  If you have an SUV, get a broom or stand on the entryway into the car.

Thanks, and I apologize for becoming that complaining old woman.

My only look back... I'm moving forward

Happy New Year to all and I hope it is infinitely better than 2009!

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Spoke my mind more and put my foot down more with various people

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn't make any last year, but I have some for this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.


5. What places did you visit?
Little towns in MO, and Houston, TX -- didn't travel enough.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
More money

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 20 -- Inauguration Day.  Pretty memorable for various reasons - one being that I voted for someone and they actually won for the first time in my voting career

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Can't really think of anything (that may be one goal for this year) -- I did post each day in November which was a big thing for me

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not communicating enough with friends and family

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Got my first sinus infection.  Regular back issues


11. What was the best thing you bought?
New pair of really cute boots. More practically, a basement draining system.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Anyone who was selfless

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Politicians of various local and national levels; former coaching colleague

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food, bills, gas

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Seeing and being around friends and family.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Knock You Down -- Keri Hilson; not a favorite, but I do love "now I'm mad real mad Joe Jackson"

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
same.
b) thinner or fatter?
a little bigger - though not much
c) richer or poorer?
a little more money - but not enough to make a big difference yet

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Hanging out with friends and communicating better


19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Wasting time on needless games/social networking agents

20. How did you spend Christmas?
With family and friends

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Only more with my man

22. What was your favorite TV program?
Lost, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 1000 Ways to Die, Project Runway (though not nearly as good as in the past)

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don't hate... I appreciate (even the people I don't like teach me and help me grow)

24. What was the best book you read?
Didn't really get to read any new books, though I did get through Easier Said Than Done written by an old friend and The Slide written by a high school classmate

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Finding out Sade and Corinne Bailey Rae were coming out with new CDs

26. What did you want and get?
A blender

27. What did you want and not get?
A lottery win

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Nine Queens (Nueve Reinas)

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Hung out with friends and family.  Stopped adding when I turned 21.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Way more money and way more time and good times with friends

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
More put together, though still needing improvement

32. What kept you sane?
My man, my chiropractor, not reading the news regularly

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Don't care that much about any of them - if I have to choose one, then Amy Goodman

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Inauguration, gay marriage, health care, war, Blackwater, climate issues, economic crisis, coup in Honduras, Nigerian trying to bomb plane

35. Who did you miss?
Various friends I haven't seen in a while; family overseas I haven't seen in forever

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Didn't meet to many new people (shame) but I am liking my new assistant coach

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
I need to be more communicative and try to foresee the consequences (good or bad) of my actions; I need to figure out what I really want in life.  I was at a conference and heard an acronym that I am digging -- PUSH -- persist until something happens

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Just get back up when it knocks you down. (See #16)

I borrowed this idea from Chase After the Wind blog.

Quote I am digging right now

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again.

~ Og Mandino

You can tell I need a vacation

Today at lunch in the teachers' lounge some of the teachers were poking fun at a student who they just found out has a girlfriend.  "I guess there is someone for everyone," one of the teachers said.

It took all my energy and food being in my mouth to not say something along the lines of "You should have known that since all of you are married and you are mostly jackasses, assholes, jerks, and people I can't imagine being with a woman in a relationship.  So yeah, there is someone for everyone."  I had to leave the room after I finished chewing that bite because I couldn't stand to listen to them go off about kids, teachers, and life in general and I also didn't have the patience to put together a way to go off on them in a way that would have them shut up real quick and rethink before they speak bad about stupid shit.

The guy across the hall usually plays music between classes.  For a time it was Miley Cyrus "Party in the USA".  For about a month now, it has been holiday music.  I can't stand doing hall duty between classes because of the music.  I don't go to stores after Thanksgiving (though now they are playing it before even that holiday) because I may have to suffer through that music.  Now I have to suffer through it for 6 minutes after each class.

And he plays it loud.  Real loud.

Very glad for short days the rest of this week and next week.  Super glad there are only 3 times during the next few days that he will be playing that music since there are only two classes each day until the break.

Looking for life directions

Since Thanksgiving day I have been thinking of what I would feel like on this day.  It is the anniversary of when my uncle came off life support and passed away last year.  Yesterday I kept hearing his laugh in my head.  I also think about how not much has changed in my life in the past year. 

Today I am trying to figure out what I have done with my life.  I am at a point where I am really trying to figure out what I really want, where I really want to go, and what I want to do in order to make those wants come to be reality.

For some reason, coming up with some specific wants and desires is kind of hard for me.  I can make some generalities about what I want -- happiness, a good pair of pants that fit in the ass as well as the waist band, a good family of my own, to live in a safe place, to live in a city where I can walk to and from various places for necessities and fun stuff, the list goes on -- but for some reason I am quite general about where those things will happen and how they will come to be.

I don't usually make new year's resolutions, but I feel like this one is necessary.  I need to figure out what I really want and how I am going to make those things happen. 

My birthday is this Saturday and by the next birthday, I want to be on the road to achieving my goals.

Wordless Wednesday: Be careful on Facebook

Today's edition is hilarious... Facebook Snafus on Huffington Post.  Thanks to Kid Sis #2 for the comedy.

Here is just one of the funny examples on the page.

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it

No, this is not a tribute to Jessie Spano of Saved By The Bell.

I love to sleep.  Most nights I don't get enough sleep.  I usually stay up later than I need to doing things that I don't really need to be doing or watching movies like The Shawshank Redemption, which I have seen numerous times, but love and can watch many more times.

Last night I went to bed around midnight.  Woke up today around 5:20 - the usual time.

I left at my usual time to head for work - around 6:15.

The interstate (Highway 40 to locals) officially opened this morning.  It took me 22 minutes to get to work.

That is about 15 minutes less than usual.  Which means, I can now sleep about 15 minutes more in the mornings.  I was so excited driving out here that I didn't even get to enjoy the new route.  The singing, shouting for joy, and rush of it all (plus the fact that it was still pitch black) all made it hard to take in the scenery.

Maybe on the way home.

Off to start my day full of children, the Russian Revolution, and the Enlightenment.

No reason for AIDS to be spreading as it is

Another day for the world to briefly think about the disease that is ever increasing its scope in the world despite the fact that it is highly preventable.  World AIDS Day 2009.  It is sad that so many people continue to spread this disease; it is sad that so many in young age brackets are transmitting this disease without realizing what they are doing.  It is sad that many schools and parents do not feel it necessary to teach young people about safe sex practices, and then when they go ahead and have sex or perform oral sex or have anal sex (which are not considered sex in many minds) despite their promises not to or the special rings on their fingers, they are not in the know of the simple latex protection they can use to help prevent AIDS and many other STDs.

Some statistics for you...

Right now there are :

• 33.4 million people living with HIV worldwide
• 31.3 million adults
• 15.7 million women
• 2.1 million children under 15

In 2008 alone -- new HIV cases:

• 2.7 million people
• 2.3 million adults
• 430,000 children under 15

In 2007 there were 2 million total HIV-related deaths.

You can get some ideas about what you can do (besides just wrapping it up and getting you and your partners tested) on this World AIDS Day site.  Respect and Protect.  I remember a line from Michael Franti's Spearhead: I know these things and these things I must know 'cause it's better to know than to not know!

If you are in the Saint Louis, Missouri area, you can learn more about the St. Louis Effort for AIDS.

Mission accomplished, one month later

I never thought I could do it, but I made it through National Blog Posting Month.  I wrote all 30 days.  It wasn’t my best work by any means, but I stuck with it. 

There were some days when I had no idea what to write and pulled something out of my bum cheeks, other days when I had a lot going on in my head, but no time to really get it down in a more cohesive way so just wrote something more simple.

All in all, it was fun and a bit challenging.

Although I will not write every day until the next challenge, I will try and write more often from now on; it is good for the soul and good for the mind to have an outlet.  Also good to try and get something down regularly even if there is a sense of writer’s block.  That is what so many good bloggers say, but sometimes life just gets hold of me and I don't write for numerous reasons and non-reasons. 

Trying to figure out education and my life

I like teaching.

I like imparting knowledge on young people.  I love being the one to teach them history that they never knew about; teaching them about places in the world they never knew existed (or never knew existed in the way they actually do and not the way they have seen in stereotypical images); teaching them how to write in non-text language; teaching them that there are more websites to view than youtube and Facebook; helping them to welcome new friendships and seeing people in new lights rather than the hate they may have been taught. 

I love coaching them to reach beyond what they thought was physically possible; helping them understand the benefits of stretching and eating appropriately.

But maybe it is time to reevaluate what I am doing. 

Maybe I would be better in some other capacity.  Or maybe some other capacity would be better for me.  There is only so much grading and planning and meetings with no follow through that a person can take.  There is only so much of kids making out in the hallways, kids not really caring about their future possibilities, teachers and administrators not understanding the connections between social justice issues and the number of minorities in ISS/OSS and not in the classrooms where they are supposed be learning so they are not left behind. 

Perhaps this is some sort of early life crisis.  Perhaps it is me trying to figure out a way to get the education system to change so that more young people are served in a more equitable way. 

Perhaps it is me trying to get into another profession.

I’m not sure.

Hopefully I find the answers to what it is I need to do – to what it is I want to do.

Counting, driving, and the po-po

A lot of times I go through the motions in life; not really aware of what I am doing, and just kind of going with the flow.  Sometimes when I am walking I start counting my steps without even realizing it until I have gotten into the 20s -- weird, I know.  I can even be talking with someone and counting my steps.  Not sure why I do it.  Maybe it is some sort of meditation device to keep me calm in various scenarios.  Not sure.

When I am driving, I sometimes zone out and get half way to a destination before questioning myself as to how I got there safely if I was not completely conscious during the drive.  I know it is a problem.  When it happens I try to make sure to stay focused on the road.

I think that people in the US tend to allow driving to be a distraction rather than an act.  I know in Germany, it is a big deal that they are going to start putting drink containers in the VW because they believe you should only focus on driving and not on drinking, eating, or texting while you drive.  I agree.  I just cannot seem to stop the thinking part of the driving distractions.  I am a good driver, though.  Comes with years of driving, years of video games, and years of watching Formula One racing.

I used to be able to say that I had never had a moving violation ticket from the police.

Until yesterday.

I was driving through a neighborhood to a friend's house on the way to the post office.  I was looking at the sign underneath the stop sign that says, "You roll it, we'll write it." I was also looking at the man raking his leaves in the yard on the corner.  In these distractions, I somehow rolled the stop sign.

I did not see the cop sitting just beyond the man raking the leaves, but he saw me.  I almost want to blame the guy raking the leaves.  I'm sure the cop was not really paying attention, but he said that the guy raking pointed out that I had rolled the sign.

Ok.  I deserved it.

I guess I am due.

As he came toward me, and I was thinking of how much money I was going to have to come out of, I was counting how many steps it took him to get to my car.  Eight coming to the car, 6 going back to his computer to make sure I was not a felon.

Addiction to a time waster

When I first played Lara Croft and one of the versions of the Sims, I was unable to really get a lot of school work done since I was more interested in getting further in the games.  Along comes this new distraction.  

But this one is worse since it is much harder to get past levels and there are no cheats available on the web.

I can't remember which blog I found this on, but thanks a lot!  I am addicted to this stupidly game, Drench.  And I cannot seem to be able to get past the 22nd level -- it counts down from 30.

It is so simple, yet so difficult once you start to have less moves.

Prince can help you give thanks

I know some people don't like Prince, but he is an amazing musical artist.  Even with the religious changes that make him not want to gyrate on stage anymore, when I saw him in concert a few years ago, he was still amazing to watch live.

A lot of his lyrics have some real bite to them.  One of the songs I was listening to the other day is "If I Was Your Girlfriend".  I think a lot of people sat on what the song was really saying since they were thinking that he must be sending some androgynous/homosexual/transsexual message or something.

The line that really gets me is "If I was your one and only friend, would you run to me if somebody hurt you even if that somebody was me?"

Seriously!?!

That is just the epitome of what a great relationship should entail.

Significant other, friend, parents, siblings, extended family -- that is how the relationships should be if they are ideal.

*** Do not stay with someone who physically hurts you -- get out/away from those relationships ASAFP. ***

People you love can sometimes get on your nerves -- I know I am not the only one.

There should definitely be give and take and there should hopefully be openness to discuss the discrepancies that come up and have the potential to escalate into arguments.

Happy Holidays to you and yours whatever you are doing.

Hopefully, you can find and stay close with those special someones in your life.

Why do The Randoms care what I do?

Why is it ok for random people I don't usually talk to to ask me about my holiday plans?

It seems as though the weekend is a personal one that is intimately shared with loved ones - same with the holidays in December.

Perhaps I am being a Grinch or something, but I don't think it is really any of The Randoms' business.

I often wonder if they are asking just to make conversation, or if they are asking so that they can compare and see if my plans are cooler than theirs, or if they are trying to find out if I get along with my people since they tend to like to argue with their family members.

Don't really know the reason, don't really care.  But just like when people ask me how I am doing, I tend to not reciprocate.  Not because I am being rude, but because what you do with your family is your business and not mine.

And I really don't care to hear about how much food you are going to scarf down in one day.

I have never really understood the purpose of eating until it hurts. I have done it, and it does not feel good.  So, no, I will not eat until I need to unbuckle my pants/feel like throwing up/need to take a break/can't eat anymore/fall asleep.  I will eat like I do most days and follow the saying Hara hachi bunme -- the Japanese concept of eating until you are about 80% full.  Yeah, there will be yummy food on the table, but I have always been good on holidays at just eating a little bit of what looks really tasty.

Though there is always room for The Middlest's homemade cheesecake.  How my sister got so good at making it, I don't know, but it is mighty tasty -- and if she does not make it this weekend, I will disown her until she returns to town and makes some like she knows she is supposed to do.