Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Pic-A-Nick

I've mentioned before that we're Catholic. It's more tradition than a Faith with us. I won't go deep into our position with the Catholic Church because it would get messy.


But we both grew up with the practice of Catholism and were educated in the school system. I myself went thru Catholic Colleges for both undergrad and graduate school. Our children are educated thru the parochial and the archdioscese education system.


So we've lived in our neighborhood for 20 years and have belonged to the neighborhood Catholic parish during all this time. We've always been active in the parish, primarily because of the school. Because of the discrepancy in our children's ages (24 & 12), we've have a kid in school there for 15 consecutive years. Without a break. That's 15 years of tuition folks. Of course we're going to do everything we can to keep down the costs.

This year, Husband is the annual church picnic chairman. For those of you unfamiliar...shame, shame. Nothing like a Catholic Church Picnic. Beer drinkin', gamblin', prize booths, fried chicken, fish and bratwurst... Mmmmm... Gambling isn't a sin if you're doing it for a charitable cause...like the church.. And since so many Catholics are of Irish, German and Italian descent, you surely can't rule out drinking. This is the place to be in the summer. On some parochial grade school grounds catching up with your neighbors, family, people you haven't seen in years, people you went to grade school and high school with... Typically, a Church's picnic is the biggest annual fundraiser for a parish. So you're drinkin' and gamblin' for a good cause.

It started out simple enough. Years ago Husband started out helping because Son's basketball coach was Chairperson. Within a few years he found himself running one of the popular gambling booths. He did a good job and kept doing it for a couple of years. Before you knew it, he was knighted as Gaming Chairman. Head of all gambling. I guess they figured since he was Italian and Catholic, it was a natural transgression, kinda like Al Pacino in The Godfather. He'll make you "an offer you can't refuse".

He held that position for a couple more years. Then the most recent picnic chair couple had to resign for personal reasons. No one stepped forward. Once again, before he knew it, he was asked to be Picnic King. He pondered it a while... asked if that meant he got his own walkie-talkie and golf cart and when powers that be said "sure thing" he readily accepted. What a schmuck.

As Picnic Czar, he is responsible for everything no one else feels like messing with.. It's hard work. There's way more to it than either of us thought. And it's a thankless job. It's one of the jobs where you just can't please everyone all the time. Don't let anyone ever tell you that politics and religion have nothing in common. Not sure which one spawned the other, but they're definitely closely related. Everyone vying for their interests. And you don't get much help or cooperation. There are so many people who figure that if they pay their money for tuition and tithe to the church then they don't need or want to do anything else. Some people don't see both sides of the coin. It's events like this, organized and managed by the church/school families that keep those costs down. I know the cost is still high, but every little bit helps.

Now all while he's Picnic King, let's remember that I am on our school's board as well as the athletic board. So right now, all of our spare time, (except when I'm blogging) is spent at church/school. We've rescheduled our annual June vacation because of this. No wonder we don't go to church every Sunday! We're there all the time anyway!

So this blog is dedicated to Nick, my husband.. who is selflessly giving all of his time, effort, muscle and smarts to church until mid-June. And is ready to pull all of his thick Italian hair out.. Someone should recognize this and I figure it might as well be me.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

But Melinda??

I was surprised Melinda was voted out last night. MSNBC says that she was too good. Voters began to think of her as a professional rather than amateur.

I'm not so sure about that. What I think is that her being voted off says a lot about who's really doing the voting. All three finalists have their own niche. But let's face it, Blake and Jordin are more appealing to the young set of viewers and I'll bet that's who doing the majority of the voting. Kids have nothing but time on their hands. Besides, being the technical idiot that I am, I don't even know how to text message. Duhhh.

Blake is my personal favorite and well as Girly's. He's just as cute and as bug in a rug. He really has stage persona.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

I've Been Tagged..

I can't believe it. I've been tagged by D, formerly known as .hohndel.org/randomthoughts/. It surprised me because I really don't fit in with his crowd. But I love to read his blog. He and his wife have the cutest set of twins! He is constantly telling of their antics and posting the resulting pictures. It gives me a lot of joy to read his honest account of their journey thru parenthood. By tagging me he's either telling me he likes me or he's trying to chase me off. Mmmmm.....

The gist of the tag is to list 7 things about yourself that few people are aware of. I had to be selective about this... There's a lot of skeletons in my personal closet. I don't want to give the impression that I'm a total whackjob.

So here it goes..

1. I have a weird way of reading the newspaper. I start reading all the articles on the front page which interest me. Then flip thru the section page by page, continuing and finishing each article I started as I come across them. It just seems more practical than flipping back and forth.. Don't mess with my system, it'll throw my entire equilibrium off as well as put me in a bad mood.

2. I've never had stitches (except as a result of surgery or birthing babies) and have never broken a bone. I guess I was a couch potato even as a kid.

3. Too much wine makes me mean and makes me puke. Hard liquor too, although I can do my share of Bloody Marys. Husband has banned me from drinking wine at social functions. I'm already sarcastic enough, no enhancements are necessary.

4. I am a salt 'ho. I like extra salt on everything. I put extra salt on my fries and salt in my ketchup. No wonder I have to take blood pressure medication.

5. I'm very superstituous. You know, "step on a crack, break your mama's back".. So far, my mother has retained her spine... thanks to me.

6. Husband married me because I'm hot. On our first date we went to a college basketball game. I ordered some nachos and asked for extra jalepenos. He says he knew right then and there I was the gal for him. We have 11 different pepper plants in our garden this year. I LOVE hot and spicy food. Make me sweat, baby. Probably why I had to have my gall bladder removed 5 years ago.

7. Last but not least...I am really not ready to be a grandma. I'm not old enough. This wasn't supposed to happen yet. I still want more kids of my own. (Not physically possible, but I have a deep interest in adoption/foster parenting.) I'm mad at my son and DIL2B for letting this happen. They're not old enough (translate that to "mature enough"). I shouldn't be angry and I feel guilty about my selfishness. But I guess I'll just have to get used to it. It doesn't mean I'm not going to love this baby. I already do. But the timing just sucks. Why couldn't they have waited until they were more established?


There, I did it. Now it's time to pass the curse on to other fellow bloggers. D didn't tell me what would happen if I didn't pass the tag along. But surely I'm avoiding some catastrophic event by not breaking the chain. Remember, I'm superstituous.

But I am taking D's advice and cutting back on the # of bloggers I'm blessing with the tag. My blogging network is pretty durn small. So the few of you that are getting this are of a unique group. Really. I promise.

http://threedumplings.blogspot.com/ - Monica

http://buckeyesinchina.blogspot.com/ - Robin

http://lanechinaadoption.blogspot.com/ - Sara


http://victoria-grace.blogspot.com/ - Stacy

Sorry Stacy, I saw on your blog someone had just nailed you the other day.







Thursday, May 10, 2007

I am THE COOL mom...

Tuesday night I escorted Girly and one of her friends to a concert. Typically, this isn't a big deal... Being big music buffs ourselves, we've always encouraged and dragged, I mean, taken our kids to a variety of concerts.

This one was a first, though. It was a concert of her choice. She badgered me about it for two months until I finally bought tickets the day before the show. These were the bands.






EEEEECK!!







AAAAAACK!





OMG, I have never felt so much my age...........This was horrible.


Before I bought the tickets I checked out the main band, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, over the internet. Checked their lyrics, etc. and they were pretty clean. I was surprised that the songs were without foul language, reference to violence or sex, nor encouraged listeners to come over to the Dark Side. So it was definitely a step up from rap and hip-hop. In fact, most of the lyrics didn't make a bit of sense to me. So I waived it off and bought 3 tickets.

It will be a long time before I let myself fall into that bucket again.

The show itself was held in a small venue. The hall probably holds about 1,000. And it was sold out. There were no seats in the hall itself. When Husband and I have gone to this same place for other concerts there were always tables and chairs set up. I guess they just do that for the old people, because none were to be seen Tuesday night. There were couches set up in the bar areas and that's where I ended up planting myself with several other chaperoning parents.


The majority of the crowd was in the range of 12-18, boys as well as girls, and many of the 12-13 years olds were accompanied by parents. We started our own bonded bunch.

The first band came on promptly at 8:00PM.
OMG. I. have. never. heard. such. NOISE!

No singing, just screaming.
Literally.
Apparently the look on my face said it all, because every parent sitting with me rolled with laughter.
It wouldn't have mattered what the lyrics said because you couldn't understand them. If I screamed at that baritone decibal I do believe my vocal cords would shred. It was awful. Think AC/DC's Bon Scott or Brian Johnson trying to see "how low they can go".

I do have to say, the crowd was orderly and well behaved. Not like the concerts I attended in my teens. There was no whiff of wacky-tobacky in the air and I did not see one kid who was zoned out of their mind. Being a product of the 70's and a veteran mom, I did see a few suspicious behaviors which prompted me to want to pull out an over the counter drug test, but nothing like I have witnessed in my own heyday.

Over and over, my Girly gushed "thank you's" and claimed me to be the "best mom in the world".

Adult Son was personally offended.

"You never let me go to concerts when I was 12 and 13!"

That's because at the time it was the onslaught of Rap and HipHop. I thought this was music of Satan.

Husband said that I sure was getting soft in my old age and could not fathom what posessed me to do such a thing.

The highlight of my evening was when a 20 something+, very attractive young man offered to buy me a beer. Ooooooweeee!! Was he trying to pick me up?

Turned out he was O-so impressed I was so interested in my daughter's likes and dislikes that I would take the time to research the band for appropriateness and accompany her to a concert that I really had no desire or business seeing. He wished his mom had been so thoughtful.

Okay. Ego properly deflated.

The concert ended promptly at 11:00 and everyone filed out in an orderly fashion. No stumbling over passed out bodies, no fights and no throw up. In this respect, I was impressed.

Musically, I was appalled.

But I maintained..

Because I AM the COOL mom.

But I think next time something like this comes up, I'll let Husband have the opportunity to be the COOL DAD.

Too much coolness can ruin momness. And in the long run I'd rather be the mom.






ROCK ON, COOL MOMS 4EVER!!!







Wednesday, May 02, 2007

My Boyfriend's Back!

Yes, he's back!

I'm going to see him tonight!

And Husband is going with me!

So is Girly!

A real family "affair"!

Who is it?




Isn't he just dreamy?


Oh, I know, I know, he's young enough to be my son. Don't remind me. If I let myself think about it from that angle, it gets pretty creepy.


He's playing down on the waterfront as part of the Derby Festival.


I just can't wait!