My little sister's getting married.
My mother officially has to admit that her precious angel baby is now an adult (even though she's 23 and in med school and has been an "adult" for quite some time now.)
By 23, I was married and had a kid. Now I'm, ahem, not 23 and have three kids. And 25 pounds of padding on my delicate bones.
I have til Christmas to lose those 25 pounds of padding, which is when I will be fitted for my pink dress. I shall NOT be the fat chick at my sister's wedding.
Thus, commence daily 5 mile runs, 30 reps of squats, and arm weights.
About Me
- Soonerchick
- I have a Bachelor's in Psychology, a Master's in Human Relations, and a Ph.D. in telling people what to do. I raise children, dogs, cats, and hermit crabs and cultivate crabgrass and pretty weeds. I am teaching myself to cook, not because I love to cook but because I love to eat. I love to travel, read, and take pictures; I also like to write, so you'll get to read a lot about all the aforementioned subjects plus about anything else I happen to feel like sharing with you. I'll take all your questions and may even give some back with answers if you're lucky and I'm feeling helpful (or bored.)
Monday, September 26, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
I don't understand
Why do people go camping?
I don't see the logic involved. Why would you forego technological advancements like beds, walls, screened windows and doors, indoor plumbing, electrical appliances, and general comfort to engage in barbarian practices like sleeping on the cold, hard (and sometimes wet) ground with bugs and rodents crawling all over you, gathering wood and scraps to start fires with flint, eating soggy food, being attacked by swarms of mosquitos and biting flies, all in the name of "fun" or "experience"? Especially in the rain. Uck.
Is it some kind of primal desire to relate to cavemen? Is there a measure of "toughness" to prove? It's not like this is Outward Bound.
I've camped before, since you ask. In a tent. On the ground. In the rain.
I prefer to do my camping in a cabin with indoor plumbing and screened windows and doors, and cook in a kitchen or kitchenette with a stove/oven, sink, and fridge. Sure, let's take a nature hike, go fishing, canoeing, horseback riding, skip some stones in the lake, make s'mores over the campfire, but at the end of the day (and sometimes in the middle, too), I like to sleep in a bed with walls separating me from the bears, wolves, and mountain lions that frequent most of the rural US; take a shower in a place with walls and a door that locks; prepare food without gathering fuel for the fire and waiting for it to light, then flare up, then settle down to cook; and get away from flying insects who think I'm their next meal.
I don't mind experiencing nature; heck, "nature" is about five feet from our back porch out here. I like fishing, swimming, canoeing, horseback riding and nature hikes. We've got woods, flowers, plants, deer, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, frogs, and all manner of insects right out the window. Which can be quite charming, as long as I can come inside and get away from it whenever I want. I guess that's the main issue I have with camping: I don't mind being outside and "nature-y" as long as I don't have to STAY outside. I like to have the option.
I was a Camp Fire Girl. I went to day camp and resident (overnight) camp every year til high school. But Camp Fire girls, in the midst of communing with nature, realized that the great indoors is where most humans like to sleep, cook, eat, and bathe, so we stayed in cabins with indoor plumbing and ate in a lodge with a commercial kitchen. It worked out nicely. I loved going to camp. No peeing in the woods...or worse yet, porta-potties. No, we took care of our business in bathrooms with doors that locked and toilets that flushed. We ate with plates and forks and napkins, on tables, sitting in chairs. We slept in bunk beds with real mattresses, in buidings with wood floors and indoor fireplaces. Camp Fire girls know how to camp. We do it right.
My boys are going camping this weekend for scouts for the first time. Luckily, Soldier is staying overnight with the older two outside while the baby and I come back home to sleep. (The lake is not too far from our house, so it's not that far for me to drive back and forth.) If my boys stay in scouts though, i think it's not a bad investment for me to buy a camper with its own bathroom and kitchenette. Maybe other people are suckers for punishment, but I see no reason to rough it if I don't have to. I'm a Camp Fire girl.
I don't see the logic involved. Why would you forego technological advancements like beds, walls, screened windows and doors, indoor plumbing, electrical appliances, and general comfort to engage in barbarian practices like sleeping on the cold, hard (and sometimes wet) ground with bugs and rodents crawling all over you, gathering wood and scraps to start fires with flint, eating soggy food, being attacked by swarms of mosquitos and biting flies, all in the name of "fun" or "experience"? Especially in the rain. Uck.
Is it some kind of primal desire to relate to cavemen? Is there a measure of "toughness" to prove? It's not like this is Outward Bound.
I've camped before, since you ask. In a tent. On the ground. In the rain.
I prefer to do my camping in a cabin with indoor plumbing and screened windows and doors, and cook in a kitchen or kitchenette with a stove/oven, sink, and fridge. Sure, let's take a nature hike, go fishing, canoeing, horseback riding, skip some stones in the lake, make s'mores over the campfire, but at the end of the day (and sometimes in the middle, too), I like to sleep in a bed with walls separating me from the bears, wolves, and mountain lions that frequent most of the rural US; take a shower in a place with walls and a door that locks; prepare food without gathering fuel for the fire and waiting for it to light, then flare up, then settle down to cook; and get away from flying insects who think I'm their next meal.
I don't mind experiencing nature; heck, "nature" is about five feet from our back porch out here. I like fishing, swimming, canoeing, horseback riding and nature hikes. We've got woods, flowers, plants, deer, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, frogs, and all manner of insects right out the window. Which can be quite charming, as long as I can come inside and get away from it whenever I want. I guess that's the main issue I have with camping: I don't mind being outside and "nature-y" as long as I don't have to STAY outside. I like to have the option.
I was a Camp Fire Girl. I went to day camp and resident (overnight) camp every year til high school. But Camp Fire girls, in the midst of communing with nature, realized that the great indoors is where most humans like to sleep, cook, eat, and bathe, so we stayed in cabins with indoor plumbing and ate in a lodge with a commercial kitchen. It worked out nicely. I loved going to camp. No peeing in the woods...or worse yet, porta-potties. No, we took care of our business in bathrooms with doors that locked and toilets that flushed. We ate with plates and forks and napkins, on tables, sitting in chairs. We slept in bunk beds with real mattresses, in buidings with wood floors and indoor fireplaces. Camp Fire girls know how to camp. We do it right.
My boys are going camping this weekend for scouts for the first time. Luckily, Soldier is staying overnight with the older two outside while the baby and I come back home to sleep. (The lake is not too far from our house, so it's not that far for me to drive back and forth.) If my boys stay in scouts though, i think it's not a bad investment for me to buy a camper with its own bathroom and kitchenette. Maybe other people are suckers for punishment, but I see no reason to rough it if I don't have to. I'm a Camp Fire girl.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Maybe I should just go Independant
I've not really paid much attention to the presidental hopefuls thus far, being recently distracted with the dangers of arsenic in the apple juice, dental x-rays, and UV dryers in nail salons. But sheltered as I am from politics lately, I nevertheless found my jaw on the floor the other day after reading a certain candidate's views on a particular vaccine.
It's impossible for me to really get behind any of the Republican candidates vying for election in the primaries this time around. Rick Perry is too evangelical for me; I have my own relationship with God and I like it, thanks. Don't shove your religion in my face. Besides, he's too much the sterotypical politician-in-bed-with-xyz-corporation for me to approve of his rationale for certain decisions (can we say "financial interest in the legal requirement of certain pharmaceuticals?") Mitt Romney's Mormon affiliation does no favors for him in my book. Again, the whole religion card is overplayed. Why does this race center so much around religion? It's like a face-off between mormons and evangelicals. It's entertaining to watch, much like gladiators in the Coliseum, but I don't really care to place bets or choose sides. Besides, I was under the impression that our founders created this nation to have a "separation of church and state," meaning that religion should not dictate the government nor be dictated by it. But because each of these men have religious friends in rich places, religion is bound to be a cornerstone of their canpaigns.
And then there's Michele Bachmann, who makes me ashamed to be a Republican. Holy screaming weasels, can someone please close her mouth with duct tape before she spews any more ignorant absurdities? In her most recent gaffe, she claimed on national television that the HPV vaccine causes mental retardation. Lunacy at it's finest, folks. She and Jenny McCarthy (best known for her obnoxious farts on MTV and spewing false claims that a. vaccines cause autism and b. she "healed" her autistic son) must be BFF's. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty details of how wrong Bachmann is (you can go here to read all about it) but this is not the first time she has unwittingly verbalized such nonsense. She has also claimed, among other absurdities, that the US "could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment" by doing away with minimum wage, and implored the public to "make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers," in combatting the so-called health care reform the Democrats are trying to pass. The last comment alone makes me wonder if perhaps she is not unfamiliar with these types of coven-like rituals.
I am interested to know how she thinks removing minimum wage entirely would wipe out unemployment. When pressed by good ol' George on Good Morning America, she failed to provide any sort of evidence at all to back up this claim. Hey, I'm not saying I agree or disagree (I'm no economist) but if you're going to show up with that placard on your platform, you'd better have some well-respected professional research behind it. Likewise on the vaccine issue.
I am not a fan of government-mandated health insurance either, but I don't think encouraging people to slit their wrists is the right metaphor to use in a stance against it. Maybe I'm just TOO conservative that way; I prefer not to engage in suicidal rituals. And the only covenant I feel comfortable with is the one I signed with my husband on our wedding day.
Her former chief of staff, Ron Carey, has admitted that she has quite the "impulsive nature" and "doesn’t use her staff well." He related to Anderson Cooper that it’s really difficult to prep her and help her kind of back-check before she goes out speaking;" some people may consider this the kind of comment to be expected from a frenemy, but I think the truth in his statements is obvious.
Frankly, I don't want a President with an impulsive nature who prefers to speak off-the-cuff without consulting the facts first. Just think of the horrendous ramifications of a President who angers the head of state (whose alliance the US may be desperate to obtain) at a foreign state dinner by making an impulsive remark intended as a compliment but taken as an insult in that culture? Or one who orders my husband off to war without any sort of logical justification whatsoever, just because she overheard a remark taken out of context on Jerry Springer or other such intelligent media? Government officials have advisors for a reason. If you don't personally have all the answers, you'd better surround yourself with people who do, and check in with them more than just occasionally to make sure you're not making an ass of yourself and/or compromising the entire country in some form or another.
This is looking to be a tough call for me; I'm really not thrilled with any of the specimens offered by my political party, but I'm less thrilled with the Democratic platform, so there's no chance of me defecting that direction. Maybe it's time to just declare myself Independant and leave the Coliseum for good.
It's impossible for me to really get behind any of the Republican candidates vying for election in the primaries this time around. Rick Perry is too evangelical for me; I have my own relationship with God and I like it, thanks. Don't shove your religion in my face. Besides, he's too much the sterotypical politician-in-bed-with-xyz-corporation for me to approve of his rationale for certain decisions (can we say "financial interest in the legal requirement of certain pharmaceuticals?") Mitt Romney's Mormon affiliation does no favors for him in my book. Again, the whole religion card is overplayed. Why does this race center so much around religion? It's like a face-off between mormons and evangelicals. It's entertaining to watch, much like gladiators in the Coliseum, but I don't really care to place bets or choose sides. Besides, I was under the impression that our founders created this nation to have a "separation of church and state," meaning that religion should not dictate the government nor be dictated by it. But because each of these men have religious friends in rich places, religion is bound to be a cornerstone of their canpaigns.
And then there's Michele Bachmann, who makes me ashamed to be a Republican. Holy screaming weasels, can someone please close her mouth with duct tape before she spews any more ignorant absurdities? In her most recent gaffe, she claimed on national television that the HPV vaccine causes mental retardation. Lunacy at it's finest, folks. She and Jenny McCarthy (best known for her obnoxious farts on MTV and spewing false claims that a. vaccines cause autism and b. she "healed" her autistic son) must be BFF's. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty details of how wrong Bachmann is (you can go here to read all about it) but this is not the first time she has unwittingly verbalized such nonsense. She has also claimed, among other absurdities, that the US "could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment" by doing away with minimum wage, and implored the public to "make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers," in combatting the so-called health care reform the Democrats are trying to pass. The last comment alone makes me wonder if perhaps she is not unfamiliar with these types of coven-like rituals.
I am interested to know how she thinks removing minimum wage entirely would wipe out unemployment. When pressed by good ol' George on Good Morning America, she failed to provide any sort of evidence at all to back up this claim. Hey, I'm not saying I agree or disagree (I'm no economist) but if you're going to show up with that placard on your platform, you'd better have some well-respected professional research behind it. Likewise on the vaccine issue.
I am not a fan of government-mandated health insurance either, but I don't think encouraging people to slit their wrists is the right metaphor to use in a stance against it. Maybe I'm just TOO conservative that way; I prefer not to engage in suicidal rituals. And the only covenant I feel comfortable with is the one I signed with my husband on our wedding day.
Her former chief of staff, Ron Carey, has admitted that she has quite the "impulsive nature" and "doesn’t use her staff well." He related to Anderson Cooper that it’s really difficult to prep her and help her kind of back-check before she goes out speaking;" some people may consider this the kind of comment to be expected from a frenemy, but I think the truth in his statements is obvious.
Frankly, I don't want a President with an impulsive nature who prefers to speak off-the-cuff without consulting the facts first. Just think of the horrendous ramifications of a President who angers the head of state (whose alliance the US may be desperate to obtain) at a foreign state dinner by making an impulsive remark intended as a compliment but taken as an insult in that culture? Or one who orders my husband off to war without any sort of logical justification whatsoever, just because she overheard a remark taken out of context on Jerry Springer or other such intelligent media? Government officials have advisors for a reason. If you don't personally have all the answers, you'd better surround yourself with people who do, and check in with them more than just occasionally to make sure you're not making an ass of yourself and/or compromising the entire country in some form or another.
This is looking to be a tough call for me; I'm really not thrilled with any of the specimens offered by my political party, but I'm less thrilled with the Democratic platform, so there's no chance of me defecting that direction. Maybe it's time to just declare myself Independant and leave the Coliseum for good.
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