The Dredded Day: Barber Fair II

Huck got light headed today.
Blue snapped photos while I snipped the dreds.
No tears so far. But Huck sure looks as dorky as when I first met him. His hair's just so dang fluffy!





He feels GREAT! Imagine, shedding 8 years in just 15 minutes. He keeps tossing his head around, light as a feather. Like he just got his braces off. He knew it would feel good, but had no idea it would feel as good as it does.

Good-bye, era!
So much was possible with the dreds. You could look at our family and understand us in an instant. It was easy to make friends on our wavelength. And it was fun to bust through stereotypes. The graduate at the top of his WSU class: with dreds. Allergic to marijuana: with dreds. Teaching high school remedial math and middle school resource room, strictly: with dreds. And especially to be a great attentive father: with dreds. There have been a few dead-beat dads that he has met along the way and he's influenced for the better. Somehow, seeing and meeting Huck gave them a new perspective on being "cool" and a good dad, simultaneously, and they changed because of it.

There's a time for everything, as they say I don't think I need to explain his decision to anyone. But I will.
He felt the need to eliminate any reason not to hire him. Employers told him that dreds wouldn't matter. This was a fantasy. There's a subconscious component to hiring decisions, which has probably been coming in to play. Also, "human resources" would be wanting to cover their butts and impress their bosses; hiring someone with dreds, they might fear rightly or wrongly, could jeopardize opinions about their own judgment.
In a different economy, it might have been different. But it's not a different economy, is it?

Mistake? Perhaps. But of the multiple choice of mistakes that life is, I think he chose the better mistake. It sounds so negative. But... it seems to be doing a good job of keeping us out of some of life's dead ends. Hopefully it'll work again.

And I apparently have a new husband without all the drama that getting one usually involves. I'm not sure he's cuter than my old husband, but time will tell. I just hope I don't mistake him as an intruder and let him have it, then he REALLY won't look as cute. Again: multiple choice mistakes to be made! Man opens apartment with key, you don't recognize him. a) you assume your husband got a haircut and you ignore him, b) you assume you've been asleep at the wheel of your life and this man is your new boyfriend, and you ignore him, c) you assume that somehow an intruder got his filthy mitts on your apartment key and is strolling in nonchelantly, so you run at him with the fingernail clippers you are holding and maim his face severely. See what I mean: pick the better mistake. It's like the engineering test, none of the answers are perfectly accurate, but its your job to pick the one the would kill the least number of people, should the bridge collapse. That's life. There's a little 101 Life for you. Free. Here on Sarajoy FRESH! For you.

Good Kids?

For an entire week I was basking in the glow of positive parenting feed back. Then Halloween came and spooked away the glory.

Volunteering in Coyote's class room, I efficiently dealt with their severe problem child (the whiniest primadona EVER), much to the gawking teacher's astonished admiration. Then I got all the kids doing yoga and meditating. She was amazed and gushed about my skills and wondered about substitute teaching.

Then I had parent-teacher conferences at Blue's school. I actually like her teachers now. Not yet keen on the "make your day" program (the program's name gets the whole family singing "Pump up the Jam"), nor do I expect to be in the near or distant future. The teachers actually told me, "It is obvious that you have put a lot of time and energy into your daughter." They also told me that they stopped using "Steps" on her because she didn't need them. They just tell her to stop and she does. They also put her into the accelerated math class. I've warmed up to them, now that they "get" Blue and they flattered me so eloquently. How can you not like that?

And then Halloween came, and the candy, and the late night. Wenatchee had a kickin' Halloween with one particular neighborhood totally decked out and crowded. Huck played in Leavenworth with the SKA band that night and returned home at 2 AM. Then we left at 5:30 for a 10AM funeral.

We walked into the Columbarium and I gasped in horror. It was a labyrinth of floor to ceiling glass. Each square foot of glass full of urns. This is every mother-of-two-kids-jacked-on-last-night's-candy-and-sleep-deprived's worst nightmare. For one and a half hours I had to keep the kids entertained. We looked at the 1,000,000 boxes. We met a woman leaving flowers for her 19 year old son who drowned and her 17 year old niece who died in her sleep. We dipped our fingers in every fountain. But it wasn't enough to keep a full-on wrestling match from erupting. Feet kicking 1 millimeter from the GLASS WALLS! In the middle of the funeral. When it was time to leave, Blue was spasticly flinging on her coat in the entry. She managed to miss the glass table but punched a visitor. When I told her to calm down that great big girl actually laid down in the foyer and kicked her legs in the AIR!! In a dress! I dragged her outside and just laid into her, "What are you doing? What is this behavior! I'm embarrassed and ashamed right now!" I was yelling, then I saw the door open and a relative heading out from the Columbarium. So I suddenly switched to a sweet voice saying, "And so I expect you to behave like the wonderful and amazing girl you really are, Okay honey?" Classic private-mom/public-mom stuff. I couldn't believe I was perpetrating it myself.

The reception was way better. It was in banquet room with an entire GLASS WALL over water. GREAT! But they had balsa wood airplanes which we flung around and smacked everyone in the head at least once. Now that's kid friendly!

So, post Halloween, I have developed a diabolical parenting tactic. It works so well that I have some concerns about it. If it's THAT effective, can it be safe? Ethical?
Here's how I developed it:
Huck was at band practice. I had a fever and felt dizzy and run down. Coyote would not go to bed. I was not going to do the chase-and-giggle thing he was gunning for. So when I told him to go to his room and he giggled and said "NO". I grabbed his bucket of Halloween candy. I tipped open the kitchen garbage with the toe lever. And I held a Mars bar over the trash. "If you don't get to your room by the count of FIVE, I'm going to throw this away."
He looked at me in TOTAL HORROR. Paralyzed by shock. His mouth gaped and gasped. He couldn't believe I would do it.
Blue whipped up from her homework and shrieked, "RUN COYOTE RUN!!!"
"One, two, three." And he was his room.
"I'm so happy to see that you've decided to cooperate tonight!"
Was that a questionable tactic? It was so efficient, it seems like it should be wrong. But I can't figure out what could possibly be wrong with it, except that it fulfills several parenting fantasies at once: throwing out candy and prompt responses. Is that so wrong? Is it wrong to make your dreams come true?

MOVIE REVIEW: If you are a parent and you haven't seen the 1944 classic "National Velvet," since you were a kid, you should. It stars Micky Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor. I loved this movie as a horse-obsessed child, but I recently got a grown-up take on it. The parents are hilarious as a couple. The little brother is COYOTE. Completely. Absolutely. And my kids loved it too.

Eat this in Rememberance of the Moscow Food Co-op

I miss that dosh gang Moscow Food Co-op there so stinking much, you wouldn't believe it. I could go any time of day or night and meet friends and acquaintances, usually Kate or Erin on business. So that was the best thing. But the second best thing (after the newsletter, of course), was the food. Sure the produce got a little long in the tooth some days and sometimes the prices were laughably high, but you could find food. REAL FOOD!

Here I have been in PAIN trying to find a good grocery store. Fred Meyer was okay, but their produce was sorry, stinky, limping, bruised compost pile. I'd found better even in the Co-op's dumpster. Costco was recommended. But they're unreliable. Most stores I've visited contain the following aisles, in order of accessibility: the chip aisle, the pop aisle, the cold cereal aisle, the diaper aisle, the TP aisle, the beer aisle, the frozen pizza aisle. Since moving here and trying to find a decent grocery store, I have discovered why many Americans are overweight: grocery store lay out. Now don't laugh. I'm serious. I have had one heck of a time finding actual ingredients for actual real meals containing actual food. And of course no one carries decent pasta or sauce. So my choices are to make it from scratch or eat shit.

There's a health food store here consisting mostly of vitamins and a few extremely over priced, expired foods. And then they over charged regularly. Last time I bought two items and they over charged me by $5! I won't even go in there anymore.

True, there are 4 Farmer's Markets in Wenatchee. But they are stuck in cash crop mode. At the height of tomato season I found only beefsteaks! I asked one booth why that was and she ACTUALLY SAID, "Well, the heirlooms and brandywines don't TRAVEL WELL." How far are you traveling, lady? So, I endured an entire tomato season with beefsteak tomatoes.

BEEFSTEAKS!

I can't find quality ingredients. I can't find fresh produce. I can't even find an edible baguette, for pete's sake! And I'm not spending 1-2 hours on a meal made with piles of GARBAGE. So, fine, quesadillas for every meal. Who gives a rats ass what we eat! Can you tell I've been a little miffed about the food situation here?

We recently trekked off to another funeral for Huck's family: Grandpa Palmer (more on thAT perhaps some other day). And we visited a thriving farmer's market while there.


They had 3 types of broccoli! Fresh!
Several types of beets! Fresh!
22 kinds of Potatoes! Fresh!
189 types of Eggplants! Fresh!
REAL BAGUETTES! FRESH!!
Holy Moses!
I spent about a $100 on fresh food.
I was giddy, goofy, and totally out of control.
Carrots! Fresh AND sweet!
Greens, several kinds and none of them mildewy!
HEAVEN!!!

And then I found Top Foods, which has a layout for people that cook: ingredients first and the junk is off on these separate discrete aisles. I even chatted with the manager for a while about the lay out and suggestions for better tofu. They had 3 types of organic sugar! It was a very good day for me.

So this week we are eating good food again. And I feel so much better. Relief at last. Thank GOD!

YIIPPPEEEE!

Me and just about the entire Universe is feeling GRAND right now. Obama won. And Gregoire is about to. I'd been invited to the official Wenatchee Democrat party last night, but was sidelined with a fever. I laid in bed and cried with joy as I heard the news. It all happened so quickly. McCain's speech was perfectly beautiful. And then I listened to Obama's speech.

You know, he is so amazing. Just put aside his being black, his being younger, his being Democrat in a BAD year to be Republican. Even without all that he's just an Amazing person who ran an amazing campaign. If he runs this country like he did his campaign, I can't see how we can fail.

Even if his only attribute had been "soaring rhetoric" (which it isn't), I don't see how that could be all bad. Soaring Rhetoric can and has accomplished a lot. Listening to someone speak and feeling hopeful, useful, and encouraged is not merely window dressing. A lot has been accomplished in this world by hopeful and encouraged people. Even I (yes, even the great, sickly Sarajoy herself!) want to be inspired to be my best self. And speeches can do that. I thought the criticism of soaring rhetoric was stupid and ignorant. Don't they know what an inspirational speaker can accomplish, can get others to accomplish? 100,000 pyramid schemes can't be wrong! Well they can, and they are. But the point is that inspirational speakers can get a lot of things done, even goofy things like pyramid business schemes.

None of the Republicans I spoke to thought an Obama Presidency would be bad. They were all simply born-again Republicans, and couldn't vote for the better leader because he was on the wrong side.

Huck's teaching high school literacy today. Can't wait to hear how that goes!

And I am going to Moscow, Idaho again on the 14th and 15th of November for a woman's craft show. Kate, The Soaptress Extraordinaire, and I are going to have a booth together. I will sell my cards and she her soap. This is thanks mostly to Kate's encouragement and LARGE order of cards for the CSA recipients at WSU's Organic farm. I was very proud to fill that order and even added some new drawings of a couple of garlics half embracing and a very shapely hubbard. These were departures for me, as I have only done wild weeds before. They turned out okay, but didn't hold my interest quite the way wild plants do. So for Christmas I'm doing a couple of wild poinsettias, wild Mistletoe and maybe a wild looking Holly. I'm trying out color and it's not going very well. The drawings are something I'm proud of, but when I go to scan them, I get the background paper loud and clear, but if I fade the paper to invisible, I lose the colors! AUGH!!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to it. The whole family is coming because Huck has business in Spokane on Thursday. I hope we can see some friends while there. The kids and Huck will be looking for ways to entertain themselves, but I'm not sure when I'll get the chance. I'll send out an e-mail to see if anyone has some time to get together.