Did I mention that I'm a little compulsive? And sometimes my compulsions turn into obsessions? And lock myself into a spiral of "must dos" that used to be "want to's?" I have been making cookies for the Gym girl's meets since her very first one. I enjoy it, the girls expect it (I should say anticipate, they are all way too polite to expect anything from me), the parents sort of count on it. It is almost always chocolate chip, even if I do another variety, usually it is in addition to the chocolate. Gym Girl insists. She is not a big chocolate fan, but she LOVES chocolate chip cookies. In fact her only complaint about mine is that there are too many chips - don't worry, that particular complaint goes ignored.
Thank Jill - but don't tell her where you got the recipe.
I am a new convert to the world of social networking. Maybe new is a loose term, I joined Face-book about a year ago and was instantly hooked. I first logged on right after my cousin's wedding in Hawaii (I did not go) and was delighted to find pictures. I emailed my uncle all excited about it, and he had not yet seen them. Instant family competition! My uncle joined that day, then called my mom to tell her he had seen video of her granddaughter doing gymnastics. So my mom joined, then my brother in Iraq. My sister joined, too, but she never logs on. I started digging up friends, sort of friends, and people I don't even remember from high school. I found professional contacts, old classmates, former co-workers, I even met people with similar interests.
I have not attempted Twitter, it seems to be all of the most annoying parts of Facebook, with none of the bonus tabs. I may change my mind, but right now I have enough trouble keeping up with the FB peeps.
This is the rant part of this post. I have 160+ Facebook friends. I actually know, and value, each of these people. I am very aware that each of my posts show up on their walls, and every comment is visible to all of their friends. My concern with the social networking phenomenon is that it gives many people a venue to be very honest, perhaps more honest than they would be face to face. Where this is most obvious to me is in political discussions. When I first got involved, Bush was our president, and republican held the political power. My wall was full of inflammatory rants from liberal groups. as the elections drew close, more conservatives came in. Now the political tide has changed and my wall is full of posts about Tea-parties, Islamic scare tactics, and the Christian Duty to Hold our American Values.
I believe that everyone has a right to hold any opinion, and everyone has a right to express them. I find conversations with people with diverse views to be fun, educational, entertaining. If I only talked to people that agreed with me, my life would be soooo boring. My FB friends are a testament to the diversity in my life, and I love discussing these views with many of these people. What I don't love is the way people post things on their walls that they would NEVER say to a mixed bag of people. Some of my peeps only have 5-6 friends, I get that they are talking to a small group of intimate friends. But some of my FB friends have hundreds of FB friends, and many of them are business contacts. Would they actually walk into a room full of potential clients and announce that this time there is REAL proof that president Obama was born outside the united states and he is secretly training terrorists on our military bases?
And even if your posts inspire many comments from the masses - is that really a conversation? If you are discussing religion or politics, shouldn't it be a conversation? a sharing of ideas? I have had these conversations with some of these folks, not with others. The ones I have not talked to are either not close enough to me to warrant the type of trust needed to engage in conversation about my deepest, personal beliefs; or they are obviously so passionate about their opinions that they are not ready or willing to listen and speak respectfully to opinions that are different from thiers. When I am asking or revealing this type of information, I like to look at faces. I like to judge the reaction to what I am saying, determine if it is a safe environment for me to rant and get a little heated, or if I need to spend more time listening, maybe even diffusing.
This type of baring of the superficial soul makes me feel voyeuristic in the lives of many of my acquaintances. I also wonder if the rampant "personal posters" are hiding behind their big opinions, without realizing that silence from their peeps is not agreement, but lack of willingness to engage publicly, in tiny sound bytes.
Keep your opinions, and express them. Just know your audience.
My daughter goes to a charter school. I had no idea what this was until I found one, and am still unclear on how it all works. I do know that as we approached kindergarten and the need to enroll her in school, I began that early quest that all parents of young children dread.
Tampa offers school choice. Meaning if you do not like your neighborhood school, due to poor academics or inconvenient location or whatever, you can request a transfer to a different school. Choices are honored if the requested school has openings. We also have magnet programs, specialized programs within the neighborhood schools that your kid can be transferred to if they show a particular interest or aptitude. i.e. engineering, performing arts, technology, health sciences, etc. Then I discovered Charter schools. These schools are chartered by a private board, taking operational control outside of the district, similar to a private school, but with public funding. !?!?! Basically, my kid gets a fantastic private school type education, but I don't pay extra for it. Before you jump on the "how can that be?" train - realize this is a state that offers vouchers to people to pull their kids out of failing public schools, to assuage the cost of private school. A lot of these private schools are parochial - hmmm government funds to educate kids in religious schools - separation of church and state is my favorite constitutional right, don't like it being messed with.
Today I got some education about the whole charter thing. Our school gets funds per child, like every other school in Hillsborough county. Our school then pays 5% of these funds back to the county to pay for services - I'm not sure what services, school nurse was mentioned, but I know that our school nurse does not get paid by the county. Our schools fiscal accountability includes MONTHLY reports to the state. The district is not in anyway required to audit their allocation of services to charter schools. We do not get bussing, or any of the other district services that I can think of, but we have excellent teachers, great programs, and beautiful facilities. To make up the difference between what the state gives and what our school offers is made up in grants, donations, and massive use of parental slave labor. Today I gained an appreciation for the hard work that all of our administration, faculty, board and behind the scenes volunteers do to keep our school running.
Across the board Florida is in a very tight budget crunch, we have been pegged as the next state to follow California into bankruptcy. With previous administrations pulling money away from public education (i.e vouchers) and the limited understanding by the public of the viability of charter schools as part of the PUBLIC education process, I am concerned that we will lose this incredible educational gem that we have.
I encourage anyone that reads this to call or write their legislators and encourage them to continue to fund education as their highest priority.
This post will get me into a lot of trouble on the home-front if it gets out. Thank god the girl child does not read. My daughter, bless her prudish heart, is a very private person, I (obviously) am not. There is a line between what is mine, as the mom, to share, and what is hers, as the beginning adolescent daughter, to keep private. I think I am about to cross that line.
She is making me CRAZY.
It has to be hormones. I decided to track it on my calendar.
We had 5 days this week that was so completely foreign to what I know about my child that it was surreal. Tuesday she had a great practice - top of the world everything going super-fine. Wednesday she had a horrible practice, couldn't do anything, forgot how to do her giants, couldn't feel her tap - it was JUST like yesterday!
She has one coach that she does not have the best relationship with. It is coaching style, sometimes problematic for my kid. I'm not sure what the deal is - my kid will talk to anyone, if necessary, not matter how difficult or painful it may be. She will not talk to this women, or allow me to. And frankly, it is a personality problem, not a "cross-the line" step in sort of thing. For 5 days my daughter was in hell, and I decided that after her meet, regardless of the consequences, I would step in. Except that it magically went away. The stories of things said and done by this coach did not change - Gym Girl is just back to her "whatever - I do the best I can, and I'm not letting this get me" attitude.
She was also excessively clumsy, came in with what looked like road rash on her thighs and butt. Not beam or bar - both. 3 falls in one practice. Ouch. I'm glad I wasn't there.
And forgetfull. OMG. I wanted to kill her. My very organized, everything in its place, note writing, homework doing, wunderkind, was completely awol. Forgot homework at school. Forgot research books at home. Water-bottles, lunch-boxes, cell phone. Remember the velcro suit of SNL fame in the '80's? I wanted to get her one.
For 2 years now, I have been able to track some minor cyclical changes. About once a month, she spends a day of forgetfulness, a day of being extra sensitive, and a day where everything is my fault. I am aware that this is normal. The receptor cells that will some day receive the onslaught of pubescent hormones have to get ready, and as that is happening, aware parents will get glimpses of the future hell they must share with their daughters. I had lulled myself into thinking that she had my genes and she's a gymnast, so I had 3 or 4 years to prepare. Oh, NO. Prep-time is OVER. Let the roller coaster begin.
Atlanta was Awesome! Gym girl nailed her back handspring on the beam, as part of her best ever beam routine. We were floored when the score came up 7.7 - WHAT?!?!?!? apparently Georgia prep-op rules are different than Florida. We do a walk over series OR a back handspring. In Georgia, you can do the handspring, but the walk over is required. So her start value was almost 2 points lower than she thought. Her coach accepted "coaching error" responsibility (love our coaches), and the gym girl was just delighted to have landed the skill. Today would have been her 1st level 7 meet, but she decided to stay prep-op and fine tune. Have to admire her maturity, I was very surprised at the decision.
Remeber Sarah Palin's bridge to nowhere? Pork Bellie Politics, lots of federal money handed out for a project that did not seem to benefit anyone except the companies with the contract and the people that had jobs for the duration of the project? Well Florida is getting its own sweet little project handed to us. Ours has the bonus of being wrapped up in green packaging - we are saving the earth and our economy all at once.
High Speed Rail train. Whoooooo Hooooo. Tampa to Orlando in like 30+ minutes. Remove the majority of traffic along I-4, increase business and commuter opportunities between the 2 cities. I know a surprising number of people that do the commute already. If I had to have a job in Orlando, I would rip my family out of their comfortable little zone and move them. If my husband and I had split jobs, we would move to Lakeland - but I digress. The green hippie, progressive side of me should be thrilled. But, I have been opposed to this project every time it has come up for the last 15 years - and it comes up alot. Now we have federal funding, so it looks like my internal whining is being ignored once again by those who have never heard my opinion.
What's my problem with this wonderful, money making, gas saving, public transit project that we all crave? Infra structure. We have none. I'm not sure about Orlando, but I've never seen a "visit our city and the public transit will take you everywhere you want to go, quickly, easily and comfortably" ads. I do know that Once you get to Tampa, you will hire a cab, call a friend or be pretty much stuck. I have attempted designing routes on Tampa's public transit system that gets me from point A to point B. But it is confusing, difficult and would leave me hanging out on very uncomfortable street corners for an uncomfortable length of time. People don't ride the bus in Tampa. At least not middle class gainfully employed people. The busses here may not be dangerous, or dirty, but the reputation of them being so prevails. There has been talk about building a light rail system to get people from the major 'burbs of Tampa to downtown for years. Same problem - you get people to a hub - then what?
It always cracks me up when the promoters of these projects point to Portland, Oregon as the model to follow when trying to seek funding. We have sent delegations to Portland to see the light rail, they always come back with glowing reports. As they should. Portland public transit is amazing, and easy, and user friendly. Everybody rides the bus in Portland. Our city areas are similar in size and construct, here in Tampa we do not have to deal with Ice, uneven terrain, potential (although unlikely) earthquakes and cross-state politics. We do worry about sinkholes, floods and the occassional hurricane. So what's the dif? Culture!
I lived in Portland while they were putting in the light rail. They tore up downtown. Portland is a very walkable city, and the city put out a massive effort to keep it so during all of the construction, and they did an excellent job of keeping access to local business open, I think they lost very few. Also, the traffic in Portland is significantly worse than in Tampa. Hard to believe, but it is soooo much easier to ride a bus than to try to drive around during rush hour. When the subject of light-rail came up, it was not a bunch of politics and special interest groups going "this will be good for our city," it was a bunch of citizens going "do something now, we can't get to work or move around comfortably on a daily basis." The street level infrastructure was established before the light rail system went in. People were already riding buses - light rail just made it all easier. The High school and middle school students have bus passes, and get to and from after school activities on the bus, rumor has it that the politics in Tampa with transit and school board would make that almost impossible, and frankly, I won't let my kid ride the school bus, pretty sure they'd have to fix a lot of things before I stuck her on a public bus. As for safety - my brother worked law enforcement in Multnomah county for a long time. Every LEO (law enforcement officer) in Portland or Multnomah county is required to inform the driver when they get on the bus. That is a lot of off-duty and plain clothes cops offering back-up. You don't know they are there, but the drivers do.
So - the answer for Tampa is to change the culture, educate the people, and make them feel like transit is safe and convenient - no, make it BE safe and convenient. Work on the infrastructure first. On another note, a friend of mine, a geologist tossed out another argument the other day that I hadn't really thought about. Did I mention sink holes? Huge areas of Tampa have been closed down this winter because large chunks of road fell into the ground. These are random, unpredictable and common throughout Florida. Small ones damages houses, large ones swallow them up. Travelling 180 miles an hour above ground hoping a sink hole doesn't open on the track may be a fun little thrill ride, get y'all warm-ed up for Universal Studios.
The "torn" reference in this post is literal. My arms and legs are all scratched up. Taking the dead vegetation out of the yard has resulted in as much injury to my limbs as the hedges. Florida is NOT intended to withstand frost. My little area of Tampa never freezes. Last year I opted to not bring any plants in on the one day we were threatened with a freeze, and we got a little frost. I lost a few things, but it did not even effect the orchids, which is pretty amazing, as they are a distinctly tropical plant, and in my yard they are more exposed than is recommended. This year, when they said "freeze" I went through the yadda-yadda, whatever, not in my neighborhood, head in the sand trip; and was thoroughly amazed at the white blanket of frost in the park the next morning. And the next. And the next. By day 5 I had pretty much figured out that this is a "cleansing" year for the garden.
Everything needs to be replaced. But first it needs to be removed. A tropical garden, with large sections that are allowed to run wild, is a very sad thing after a big freeze. When I first moved to Tampa, the south had been hit with record breaking freezes, all of the out-lying areas were filled with row upon row of orange tree skeletons, eerie, sad, and incomprehensible to a farm girl used to the ebb and flow of northern life. I don't think my Caramobola (Star -Fruit tree) will make it. It could surprise me, it is 7 years old, good solid trunk and has had two years of prolific fruit bearing. Surprisingly, my cinnamon tree looks fine. It is not supposed to handle any freeze, Tampa is actually a little too far north for recommended growing.
I doubt that I will have it all cleared this weekend, but we are moving toward a goal.
I would be farther along on the yard, but yesterday was a wash. I would blame it on the rain, but I was beat, and only managed about 2 hours of actual work. Friday night I picked up my daughter, 3 other girls and one of the gym moms for a field trip to Gainesville. We watched our first college gym meet. 4th ranked UF (go Gator's) against 13th ranked LSU. LSU has the nation's top-ranked All Around gymnast, and she rocked it, but UF has an amazing group of specialty gymnasts, and some really great all-around contenders. TGD had a huge turn out, and we sat mostly together, just above the uneven bars. Fun, Fun, Fun! And I think the Wild Child could actually become a sports photographer, with a little practice, and some bigger lenses. Anyway - Traffic was horrible - and it took us forever to get out of the garage, forever to find a spot at Ben and Jerry's, forever to order, forever to get on the road, etc. etc. We ended up not getting back to Tampa until 1:30 am. It took lots and lots of caffeine to get me home. The other mom had to work at 6:00am, so she slept, as did the girls. I had a coffee/toffee ice-cream and 2 shots of espresso float at Ben & Jerry's - so I was good for the trip. But that amount of coffee can backfire on a girl after midnight. Restless sleep, then wide awake at 5:00am - UGH!!!!! sooo - not much got done, but the girl made it to practice at 9:00 am. The whole trip was a flashback to "away games" when I was in high school. Fun, exhausted, useless the next day. Ready to do it again, just not for several weeks.
