Cool Colors

I was at the periodontists getting my teeth cleaned yesterday and the lovely technician is talking to my daughter. She asks about her favorite class which she tells her is art and they are making homemade journals. My little girl tells her she is using warm colors on hers, oranges, yellows, pinks and reds. The technician (I call her this because she is more than a hygienist) goes on to ask my daughter then, “Well, what are the cool colors?” My daughter responds, “Hmmm, the coolest colors I think are the pink and the white and then I can blend them together and that makes a pretty cool color too.” I had to wait to laugh until she removed the instruments from my mouth. The technician was laughing too, well she asked. We didn’t explain what she was really asking, because hey, pink and white are very cool colors, whatever… it’s cool.

Midterm Anxiety

My Freshman are freaking out a bit this week before their first official high school exams. The proof is two kids called me 'Mom' and one kid called me 'Ms. Paragraph!' It was so funny.

I'm so excited!

Well, tomorrow will begin a huge change in our country. I am so proud to be an American right now, I'm practically gushing. I am lucky enough to work at a school where we had the option of taking our kids down to see the inauguration on the big screen in the auditorium. I can't wait to hear Obama's acceptance speech. I just know we will remember something from it for decades, as we have so many American Presidents inaugural speeches. For example, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

It is so difficult to explain my excitement though and tried with my child today. I think now that Obama will be our President it means anyone who recognizes the value of hard work, perseverance, and who knows that helping others is the best way to help ourselves, can make it to the top in this country. He or she can be a leader no matter what the individual's particular dream may be. I think it shows us that as a country, or even as a human race, we have finally accepted that our diversity is what makes us strong. We accept that we do not all look alike and should not all look alike, that we should have varied experiences in our lifetimes, not cookie cutter existences, and most importantly that we don't have to have the last name of Kennedy, Bush, or even have a family in politics to lead our wonderful country. Obama’s inauguration means to me that my daughter can be a future President of the United States or anything she wants to be, that being raised by a single mom with not a lot of money is no longer an impediment. If a single mother can raise a President any single mother with the desire to help with schoolwork, read with her child, and give her child challenges, hopes, dreams, self-esteem, love, love and more love, will raise a child who can do anything they wish to work hard for. It means any of my high school students, if they work hard and make good decisions, can be whatever they dream.

Of course, all of this could have happened before and could have happened if McCain was President, but money, history, and family power did not win this time. Brains, heart, and perseverance won this time, and we call afford those things no matter who we are. Especially us single mothers with the apartment and car the dream of the house and the better future for our child, we can now start dreaming bigger and better for our children, not that we didn’t before but because now we have proof that the values we strive to convey to our kids work. And not just single mothers, but all mothers. I didn’t vote for Obama because he was raise by a single mother, I voted for Obama because he made me think the status quo could change and dreams can come true.

G-d bless our new President and his family. And G-D BLESS AMERICA!

Redundant!

Happy New Year

Wishing all of you and your loved ones a safe, happy, and healthy 2009.

Mozilla Rules!

I just wanted to pop on here with a public service message, ha ha. Do we have those anymore? Mozilla, as suggested by our esteemed Captain of Hogwash, is awesome. It remembers passwords for websites that you go on all the time, it doesn't have the autofill but a drop down box when you are filling something in which gives you choices you have used before in the same type of space. This is more versatile as with autofill you only had one answer it would fill in, such as email address. This way you can chose which email you want to fill in on which site, etc. I like it much more than the controversial Internet Explorer, which I always used because it was there, I guess. This Mozilla I suggest to everyone. When Internet Explorer gets its security issues straightened out, I for one am not going back.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Happy Kwanzaa!

Happy Sixth Night of Chanukah

Happy Kwanzaa!

Below please find the seven principles of Kwanzaa, in case you needed to know!

The Nguzo Saba - The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa

Umoja (Unity)
To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose)
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity)
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith)
To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

*From -- Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, 2008, Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press (www.sankorepress.com)
Isn't this interesting: "Gifts are given mainly to children, but must always include a book and a heritage symbol. The book is to emphasize the African value and tradition of learning stressed since ancient Egypt, and the heritage symbol to reaffirm and reinforce the African commitment to tradition and history. " Must include a book, what a novel idea. Punny, I know.

Where the hell are the coats?

Speaking of charity, I have a big issue now with the winter coat charities. Now we are always donating our old coats to charities, there are boxes everywhere for old coats. I have never thrown out a coat; I either’ve given them away or donated them. Well, where do these coats go? My best guess is it is a conspiracy theory thing, and some quilt manufacturer is really getting all of these coats and using them for blanket stuffing. Why would I say something so crazy? Try to get a coat. I did. It can’t be done. Seriously.

A kid at school needed a coat, so I figured I would get him one. Easy? Not. The Salvation Army would not help without the family jumping through hoops, which wasn’t the point. It was to help the busy hardworking mom have less to do, not give her more to do. Then I went to Goodwill. Goodwill is an incredibly moneymaking venture; I will never donate to them again after seeing what they charge. Used coats $29.99, really? Add ten bucks and I could’ve picked him up a new one, but as his teacher, I wasn’t doing that. I thought of it at this point, but now it was the principle of the thing - where the hell are all the coats? The churches are wonderful but have limited hours, a working person really can’t get there, so I don’t know what a couple of the church thrift stores would have charged, if anything. I couldn’t get anywhere before 2:00.

So here I am, just trying to get a kid a coat, and I can’t. I called the places that you leave coats and no one knew where the coats actually went so people could get one. I called most of the people I know and no one actually knows where you would go to get one of the thousands of coats that are donated each year. Insanity. A dear friend’s boyfriend had a nice coat he wanted to give away she told me when I called to find out if she knew where to get a coat. So thank A. for the coat, this kid is warm, but what about the next one? Shouldn’t we know where our donations go and be able occasionally to go get something for someone who needs? Right, isn’t that the point? I thought so, but... I can just imagine how hard it is for someone to needs help to actually figure out who to reach out to, to get that help. How do they even know where to go or who to call? I still don’t know where the coats are but I do know where the caring people are, so it’s a leap in the right direction.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas to Everyone Who Celebrates It! I hope something wonderful happens to everyone!

As a quick update, the neighbor I helped with her citizenship paperwork is now an American! Yay! I am so excited for her and her family. She also made me the best baklava ever! Yummy and fattening, but mmmm.

My friend C. was busy today running around trying to make Santa show up for three little girls she knows who were otherwise going to have no Christmas. We did what we could to help her efforts, but I tell ya, when she gets her mindset, she is a force to be reckoned with. (Are we all ladies?) It’s funny I heard once that people would help others more, they just don’t know who needs help. So bless you C. for seeing a need and filling it. I look forward to hearing how it went; I know she totally changed that family’s day and outlook on life too probably.

Thanks to the millions of people around the world who help make the holidays better for others. It is so appreciated, I have had help at the holidays before too – food basket, or toys and clothes for my child. I will testify that when you open that carton or whatever it is, the generosity and kindness of strangers brings tears to your eyes. You are so grateful that someone though of your loved one and whether or not he or she was smiling. It changes your outlook on the world and makes you positive, especially when you aren’t able to give your child what they deserve, like a new winter coat, boots or what have you. When someone else helps you like that, if firms up your resolve that someday you will help others like others have helped you. I am proud to say this year, now that I’m out of school, we were able to do some good things for others, and it felt nice. My child loves to help others too and doesn’t hesitate to run up to her room and bring something down for someone who doesn’t have anything. I am proud of her. Next year we will do more. Of course we always try to help, not just at the holidays, but the holidays there are more opportunities to help.

I might not celebrate Christmas, but I love it! What a wonderful time of year!