Dancing With Angels?

We enrolled my three year old daughter Abby in her first dance class this week. I was really excited about it because of how much she dances around the house. She seems like she's going to be a natural at it.


Yesterday, The Wife dressed Abby up in her absolutely adorable ballet outfit and took her to class. Anxious to see how she did I called The Wife to check. Apparently there are no windows looking into the dance room and parents aren't allowed in. I can understand what they're getting at. The child will be less distracted without people moving around but the whole point of a three year old in a dance class is to see them dance. Now, all cute and clumsy.


That was a problem but not the real problem. After the first class The Wife was told that each class starts with a prayer and bible study. A copy of the bible study would be sent home each week. What the...? Now I have no problem with religion, bible study or prayer, I just didn't expect to be paying for bible study when I sent my child to DANCE CLASS. If I wanted to send my child to bible study I would send her to, hmmm, I don't know... church maybe?


Now I can't get the image of her dancing around a burning bush or toe tapping through the Last Supper. Why do these people torture me so? Why can't dance just be dance? Oh well, on a more positive note we're thinking about enrolling my middle son in swimming/baptism classes next summer.

Push The Pigs Out of Bed

Politics frustrate me to no end. What should be a great system has turned into a power grab for personal benefit. Worse, the press loves the current system because it gives them hours and hours of problems to report about. I bet there are only a handful of politicians that are actually looking out for 'We the people'.

What frustrates me most is that 'We the people' could easily fix the system. We won't of course because most of us have bought into the two party system that basically makes it into an 'our team can beat your team' mentality. Great for the team leaders, not so great for those of us watching from the sidelines.

For what it's worth here are a few things I would change to insure a better government.

Term Limits: This, without a doubt, is the most important change that should be made. This would stop career politicians. This would stop power grabs. This would help curb corruption. Elected officials would get elected have a few years to do some good then fade back into the private sector or some other form of public service.

Equal Access: Every citizen should have the same access to an elected official as anyone else. That means no special meetings with lobbyist or special groups.

No Gifts: No paid for trips, no free dinners, no free airplane rides, no campaign contributions. No gifts at all.

Structured Campaigns: Set spending limits for each political race. Free and equal air-time on TV and radio. Equal amounts of newspaper ads. No outside groups campaigning for a candidate nationally.

No Party Power: Speaker of the House and Senate should be rotated between states every few months. Committee heads should be appointed the same way.

Equality for All: Elected officials have to abide by any and all laws the public is subject to. Like wise, their benefits should be equal to and no more than is available to the public. Social security and taxes not excluded.

Open Up the Field: I'm not sure how to accomplish this one but everyone would benefit from having more party choices than the two we have now.

I realize after all of these changes are implemented it would take a few years to close all the loopholes that pop up. I think it could work too. It couldn't be much worse than what we have now. I just don't understand how everyone can watch these pigs walking around on two legs and not be frustrated too.

How Many Times?

Co-worker : David can you come in here?

Me: What do you need?

I can't open this attachment. It's from FedEx about a package. *click* *click* *click*

We don't use FedEx.

*click* *click* *click*

Um... are you expecting a package?

No.

Did you send a package?

No.

Do you know the person who sent the email?

No.

Why did you try to open it then?

Because it has a tracking number.

Okay then. Is your anti-virus software running?

Yes.

Delete the email and don't open the ones you don't recognize. You should be alright.

*ten minutes later*

David... my computer just shut itself down and now the screen is blue.

*whisper* damn it!

By the time I found the bastard it had sent 238 emails of itself to other people, cloned itself 18 times in her computer and made multiple attempts to infect our entire network. Three different virus detection programs couldn't find it.

I don't know who I'm more irritated with. The employees I keep telling not to open unfamiliar emails or the bastard who made the virus. I pick the employee, at least I can give them the old stink eye.

Bigger Than Gold

I love the Olympics. Mostly because some of the greatest sports moments in history are made there. One story I've been following, and apparently a lot of other people too, is the Michael Phelps story. Eight Gold medals in one Olympics, simply awesome! While I've enjoyed watching this history unfold I've been extremely irritated with the press coverage I've seen of this story.

I understand that NBC needs that big story to get people to tune in and earn their money but they should still respect the efforts of all Olympians. Note to NBC, OTHER ATHLETES TRAINED JUST AS HARD AS PHELPS. My frustration reached it's peak after the last team relay. The four gold medalist were being interviewed about their big win. The only thing the interviewer wanted to know from the other three was "how did it feel to help Michael Phelps achieve the impossible?" Excuss me NBC, THESE PEOPLE JUST EARNED OLYMPIC GOLD METALS TOO.

It's a valid question to be sure, but that was really the only question they had been asked for the entire Olympics thus far. If they were asked about their efforts it was hurried so the real question could be asked, "What about Phelps?" They knew it too. You could see it on their faces. They wanted their moment but knew if they didn't talk about Phelps they wouldn't be allowed to talk at all.

I don't blame Phelps. He did everything he could to throw the spotlight his teammates way, it just wouldn't stick. I think NBC missed the big picture here. The Olympics is more than the gold. It's about the journey, the determination, the obstacles that are over come. Some athletes journey just to get to the Olympics was harder to achieve than all the gold metals Phelps won.

To me the Olympics is about having the courage to dream, taking the chance to follow that dream and the determination to make that dream a reality. If you win a medal doing it, well, that's just icing on the cake. So I will do what NBC has failed to do properly. I salute ALL Olympic athletes. I admire your achievements. Forever and always, with or without a metal, you will be known as an Olympian. That single word defines the type person you are... a dream chaser. The world needs to know about people like you and as many as we can.

Never look away...

Anyone who has children knows there are times when you think you can leave your little angels alone so that you can take care of some business. Whatever it is will only take a minute, really what kind of trouble can they get into in such a short amount of time.

Well here are two GOOOOD examples we experienced first hand this weekend.

Saturday, my two youngest were playing quietly in the playroom. A little too quiet if you know what I mean. We don't know which one, but one of them decided to unzip two of the bean bags and create a summer blizzard. They had a ball but WHAT.A.MESS!

Then Sunday, we THOUGHT Abby was just watching TV in the den. As I entered the room she looked at me and said, "sorry!" I looked in horror to see she had taken a not so Magic Marker and colored her legs, feet and hands with it. After a lot of scrubbing we were not able to get it all off. The pictures you see are what's left of what she did. The original art work was much, much worse.

The little stinker wasn't sorry at all. In fact, she was quite pleased with herself.

My Sister... wtf?

My sister came home to visit last week. I'm really at my wits end as to how to deal with her. She has placed herself on such a high pedestal falling off would kill her. She has decided that her life is so perfect that she is entitled to critique the rest of the family on how to fix ours. What bullshit!

Her visits, which were once a welcomed event, have become a dreaded exercise in watching what you say and what you do. My mom walks on egg shells so that she doesn't become the target of her opinions. I just avoid having any serious conversations with her. My brother and his family won't even come see her.

I knew she had been confiding in The Wife but after she left I found out she had a heart to heart with my dad as well. Both discussed some of the conversations they had with her and both had me seeing red. I had to stop both of them from telling me everything because I didn't know if I could stop myself from contacting her about what she had said.

I work in a small family business. We are going through a painful transition of turning ownership and leadership of our company from my parents to my brother and myself. I can't begin to tell people how complex a situation this has been. My dad doesn't want to give up what has been his life for the past thirty years but also knows he's tired of the daily grind. Promises have been made on both sides and some feathers have been ruffled working out the details. He obviously discussed this with my sister. She advised him that if he wasn't happy with the the way things were going to fire my brother and myself (she doesn't realize we own half the company already) and close the business down. WTF? My dad's thoughts about her after this suggestion... "Your sister is nuts."

What the hell is she thinking? After twenty five years of building our business my dad is going to forget every promise he made? Did she think about the impact this SUGGESTION would have on my family and my brother's family? She has no clue the sacrifices my brother and myself have made because "one day the company will be ours". Actually she just has no clue.

The wife had to cut their conversation short as my sister tried to explain to her that no matter what agreement I had with my parents, I had no right to expect anything. She tried to convince The Wife that if my brother and myself hadn't taken the "easy road" we would not have put ourselves in this position. The Wife tried in vein to explain to her all the sacrifices both families have made to make our company successful. A company The Wife has asked me to leave many times because of the long hours, the extreme stress and the lack of boundaries between our personal and my business life. My wife's thoughts about her after this conversation... "your sister is nuts."

So what to do about my sister? I find it increasingly hard to be around her. I damn sure don't appreciate her meddling in my life. If she has an opinion about me she should come say it to me. What could she have been thinking when she tried to tear me down to my own wife? I honestly have no idea but something is brewing and I fear it's going to come to a boil sooner rather than later.

Per Time Traveller

I was tagged.

4 Places I Visit Over and Over:

Atlanta, Orlando, Mexico, that happy place in my mind that keeps me sane.



People who call/text/e-mail me regularly:

The Wife, my best friend, work-out partner #2, inappropriate email vendor



Favorite Foods:

Steak, Cheese Pizza, Sweet tea and pretty much anything with sugar in it.



Places I'd Rather Be:

Home



Movies I'd Watch Over and Over:

You Can't Take It With You, Joe verses the Volcano, My Cousin Vinny, Band of Brothers, You've got Mail



Bands/Groups I Love To Listen To:

The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, The Goo Goo Dolls, Patsy Cline

Happy & Scared

School starts this week and I'm more than scared. My son, who was diagnosed with autism when he was three, will be going to kindergarten this year. He is five and will be starting school with his age group. The fact that he is able to start school with his peers brings me enormous pride. He has come so far in such a short amount of time.

As proud as I am, I can't help but be worried. As much as I'd like to think he's like every other kid, he's not. He's a very complicated child that can seem simple to anyone that doesn't know him. I'm praying that he gets 'the right teacher'. A teacher who will be understanding and not fooled by his ability to mimic other children. My worse fear is him getting a teacher that will resent him being in the class. One that sees him more than a burden than worthy of being educated. As much as I admire teachers there are people who wear the title undeservedly. Such as this one, I actually cried when I read this.

Fortunately my child has not shown himself to be a disciplinary problem. Actually, he's quite the opposite which brings me to my second fear. He is so sweet and so willing to follow others he will be an easy mark for any child that realizes he's different and wants to exploit that fact. As we all know kids can be cruel.

I'm having to fight the urge to put him in special classes that places him with teachers that understand and children that are in his same predicament. Then at least I'll know he's safe. But I can't do that can I? Because I know in my heart he deserves a chance to succeed at the highest level. We need to know the limit of his abilities. I'm hoping we don't find them. I know that throwing in the towel before the first round has begun is safe but unfair. If he fails it needs to be because it was not within him, not because we doomed him to failure. That would make us failures as parents, again, not fair to him.

So come Friday my son will go to kindergarten for the first time. I'm happy. I am, but as I said, I'm scared too, really scared.