New News

And you can read all about it here. :-D

It was quite amusing to tell my family. First they didn't quite believe us, at least for a few seconds, then they were all so excited! Then they were confused.
Auntie: "Why June 21st? That's a Thursday!"
Me: "But it's the Summer Solstice!"
Whole Family: "Ohhhhhhhh!"

Meanwhile, it just seems that weddings are in the air! Two of my fellow snopes-friends are also getting married, which is absolutely wonderful.

And strangely, it seems my ex-husband is also getting married, according to the announcement in the paper, in March, to his just-past-high-school sweetheart, who is far more suited to him than I ever could have been. My main reaction was, "Darn it, I wanted to get remarried first!"

More Racial Food For Thought

At this temp job of mine, I work in a small office room with two other people. One of them has a radio which she keeps tuned to a station which is a combination of R&B and a talk format. It bills itself as black people radio. One of the DJs actually said it that way- "You're listening to radio for black folk!"

In the afternoon, they have a talk host on who addresses "black issues."

I had to do some pretty extensive studying of vocal quality and tone when I was in college the first time around.

Based on his voice, I am 99.9% sure that this host is actually a white guy pretending to be black. It's not a matter of his vocabulary or language construction or accent; it's his voice itself.

I feel like I'm listening to some sort of weird vocal blackface thing.

Racial Food for Thought

When a commercial for some biography about Muhammad Ali (or Cassius Clay, for sports trivia purists) came on the other night, it occurred to me that the young Mr. Ali was an incredibly handsome man.

Yet if I'd been one of his contemporaries, it would quite likely not even have occurred to me to think of him in such terms. Ever.

How sad.

Tagged, I'm It

Well, Martie tagged me, so now I am supposed to post 6 weird things about myself. So here goes:

1. I will go barefoot any chance I get. (Yet another reason for hating winter!)

2. One of my favorite pastimes with my baby brother (which started practically before he could even talk) is to watch bad Japanese monster movies.

C. In my mind, my car has a gender and a name. She is the Red Star. (Named for the White Star ship from Babylon 5.)

4. I am allergic to crab and lobster. Which sucks, because crabcakes are really very good.

5. There are days when the wind off Lake Erie smells so much like the ocean wind down in Florida that it makes me amazingly homesick, even though it's been 15 years since I lived in Florida.

6. I have dreams about vampires with some regularity.


I'm not going to tag anyone... but if you want to do a post like this, consider yourself tagged!

Confessional Friday

(Wow, I haven't done one of these in awhile, have I?)

Confession #1: So, this new job of mine which was supposed to be all wonderful and which I was so excited about? It turned out to be actually dangerous. Not just, "I don't like this job after all," but, "I feel like my life and limbs are in danger if I go to this job." It was at a state facility for people who have MR/DD. Okay, I've taken care of people with severe and profound mental retardation before, and I can do it without much trouble. What I didn't understand before I started the job is that this facility is for the people who can't handle living in ordinary group homes, the ones who, in the parlance of the trade, have severe behavior problems.

I really shouldn't be any more detailed than that, due to confidentiality issues, but after three days of coming home shaking and near tears, I called my old temp agency to beg for help and they quickly found me a one-month assignment that will start Monday. I give all the praise in the world to the workers who can stick it out, but I'm not one of them, and I'm kind of ashamed of it.

Confession #2: I've been reading this website and this website, and agreeing with pretty much all of it.