It Only Took One Week

I grew up in a house with a Northsider father and Southsider mother. In terms of baseball in Chicago you know what this means. Being a daddy's little girl I tended to gravitate towards the Cubs. My brother being a Mama's boy, a Sox fan. If I have to hear my brother talk about how they have 9 fingers left and we have 10 (in reference to championship rings) I will literally smack him! However, I choose not to lower myself to such childishness.

A few years ago during the Cross Town Classic I remember a friend commenting on the number of Southside fans with shirts insulting the Cubs. It makes me wonder, why are you spending money on shirts with "our" team name on it? Support your own team and move on. While I am not finger pointing, because I know it happens on our side too, it always seems whenever I talk to a Southside fan they comment on how bad my precious Cubs are. STOP! Worry about your own team and let me continue to be disappointed every October.

I mention all of this because today in grad school we had a guest speaker who made me think of this jaded relationship with North and Southsiders alike. He was a policeman from the town in which I teach giving us information on gangs. He went through Gangs 101, why they join...blah blah blah....In his presentation he had several photos of gang member memorabilia collected by the 5-O over the years. One in particular item caught my eye. It was a hoodie with several rival gang member symbols either turned down or cracked. To those of you not up on gang culture this is a way to "dis" the other gang. For example, let's say I am a member of the Hammerston Gang. Our logo is a Hammer, many of my hoodies would have hammers all it. Well, on the other side of the river is my rival, the Axe Gang whose logo is an axe. In an attempt to "dis" me they would have graffiti all over town with my Hammer logo pointing down. Yes, intimidating and reason to kill someone, I know.

Anyway, as I looked at this hoodie marked with "dissed" logos all over the place I leaned over to my classmate and said, "This gang is like the Chicago White Sox fan of gangs. They spend all their time making a hoodie in an attempt to talk smack about their rivals. Make a damn hoodie with your own logo and support your own gang!"

Woo Woo Cubed

TIMES

EQUALS

What an awesome weekend!

Motivational Posters

I am sure many of you have seen these posters in e-mails. They make me chuckle for sure. There are a few that some might feel are offensive, so I put one of the tame ones here. However, there are a few with some overweight people that while humorous, I can't help but feel bad because they are after all people who, either knowingly or not, have their picture floating around in an unflattering picture with words like Mooseknuckle written underneath.

Anyway my point is this. You know how sometimes the news has stories about obesity, heart disease or any other ailment associated with overweightedness and they show people walking down the sidewalk from about mid chest down? This, I suppose, is to illustrate that overweight people walk down the street everyday and we live amongst them because if they did do a news story without a graphic of overweight people I am sure many of us would not be clear as to what "they" look like.

Back to my point... I seriously worry that one day I will be watching the news and one of those stories will come on and I will be like, "Holy Shit, that is me walking down the street!" I don't know if that would kick my ass to workout a little harder but until then I will happily sit here on my computer doing nothing to avoid that ever happening.

Hail To A Possible Chief

Those of you who know me know my aunt who lives in NJ. Today she sent a photo packed e-mail. She happened to be driving through this quaint little town in NJ and look who she saw. Here are my observations/comments.







1. Who names these buses? Straight Talk Express? Considering who's inside isn't that an oxymoron?

2. Look at that HOT Secret Service guy! Not sure but he might be the one in the sunglasses.

3. No sunglasses but just as HOT. I think he is saying to himself, "Look, the lady with the camera and silver fox hair, isn't she the one with the gorgeous niece in Chicago I would love to meet?"







4. He does look kinda old. I mean I always thought Ronald Reagan looked real old but when he was in office I was 8-16 so a little perspective.

While I might not be voting for this particular man come November, I do think it would have been neat to meet him. Please don't tell my future husband John Cusack who needs my help.

Co-ed, Mother & Wife

Tomorrow begins a fun-filled four weeks of grad school from 8:00-4:00. Back when I was working on my first Maters I took classes in the summer of '03 and '04. I was the mother of one back then and Grammie so kindly took care of D so we could save money on daycare. Though not my first choice of things to do in the summer it wasn't so bad. It was only three and a half hours and three days a week. I was able to finish my Masters in two years; graduated 7.5 months pregnant and thought, "Good for me!"

While home on my maternity leave in the Fall of '05 I thought I could go back for my Type 75 (the type you need to be a principal). I put it off and last March began my quest. I decided not to go for another Masters because really there is no benefit, monetarily or otherwise. The nice thing about where I am getting my Type 75 is they are on trimesters. I can get 3 classes done a year and I only need 10 classes total. As of today, I am half way done.

Summer would bring more classes. Last summer I took School Law. For those of you who love this movie...boraphyll! Grammie watched both boys, but I think it was a little much. J is active to say the least and keeping up with him outside of his own environment is difficult for a woman in her ______years.

This summer I am taking two classes. While I am dreading it, on July 2nd I will be only 3 classes away from my Type 75 and will have done so in less than 2 years. D does not do well at daycare. One of the teachers he just doesn't jive with and him being there all day could be a recipe for disaster. We have been asked to leave two daycares because of his issues and I can't put any of us through that again. I asked him to go to camp at our gym. There were tears about mean kids and camp counselors who don't care. I could have put him at the Special Ed park district day camp but I don't know if that is exactly what he needs either. So off to Grammie's he went this afternoon. Grammie and Pa bought him new bike and hopefully he won't fight them too much on that front. J will be attending the daycare for the next few weeks. On an up note he is pretty much potty trained there...home he just can't be bothered he says, "No thanks. No potty". Fast forward 10 minutes to Diego or Transformer underwear with a mud pie. This is one phase that I would love to just skip!

Which leaves me to how I feel at 9:26 the night before class. I am dreading it. I just want to get it over with! The anxiety about what I will have to read, write, collaborate with and all the other crap that goes along with grad school is killing me. I can guarantee a Super Big Gulp Margarita in my future on July 2nd!

Reading Corner

It is so weird to me how I can have two children that are at times so much alike and other times so different. For about two months now J has taken a liking to this Dr. Seuss favorite. Always asking us to read it to him. J has always been of a fan of reading. He will sit in the corner and "read" lots of books at a time. Today he sat down on the recliner grabbed his favorite book and said, "Dr. Seuss's A B C book". Turned the page and on the inside cover is the same thing and he replied, "Dr. Seuss's A B C book". It was so cute he then began to read the first three pages up to "Donuts and a duck dog D...D...D..

D was never a fan of sit and listen to this book I will read you. I would often read and he would meander around the room. However, he was our little computer baby. He memorized the entire Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat by reading it on the computer and then found the book on the shelf and read the entire thing cover to cover at age 3.

I am quite lucky to have kids who enjoy reading in some way. They certainly did not get that from me. When I was a kid my mom practically had to force me to read. I absolutely hated it. As an adult I love to read but with grad school I don't seem to have the time. Well, perhaps I could stop watching reruns of shows I have seen but that just isn't as fun.

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Say it loud say it proud; THE BEST TEAM IN BASEBALL!

I'll Take The Window Seat

This morning on my way to work. I know what you all are thinking, didn't your school year just end? Why yes it did. I was already back for meetings. So much for the battery our principal told us to recharge. The DJs were discussing irrational fears. He mentioned that he has heard of parents who refuse to fly together if they have kids that are not traveling with them. He went on to say that some don't even ride in the same car together without their kids. This, while probably harder to do, seemed more "rational". I mean the likelihood of being in a fatal car accident it more likely than a plane, right? FYI-I try not to think of either.

This reminded me of the time J and I went to Vegas when D was 15 months old. About two minutes before we left for the airport I wrote on a Post-it note "Should anything happen to J and I on this trip we would like my parents to raise D." We both then signed said Post-it. Seriously. I stuck it to our kitchen counter and hoped our wishes would be carried out.

I never thought about this before. Partially because J and I haven't been on a plane without the boys since then, but still. Have any of you ever considered flying separately? If J takes me on that "Congratulations on Finishing Your Type 75 Trip" we are planning for next March, it may not be that bad of an idea. Irrational though? I don't know.

I will tell you what is irrational. My fear of being arrested and sent to prison for a crime I didn't commit. Not like Ashley Judd in Double Jeopardy or anything, but like on of those you always see on Law and Order shows where something happens that links you to something and you have no alibi because you decided to go for a walk or watch movies alone. It's always the ones that decide to stay home alone that end up sitting in an all woman prison in down state Illinois wondering, "How the hell did this happen to me?"

So, what's your irrational fear?

Shopliftin' in the Burbs

Yesterday I took the boys (much to their chagrin) shopping for some end of year gifts for teachers. Being a teacher myself I put much thought into these gifts. For those of you who search for the perfect gift, I guarantee you it isn't on of these.



'Cuz if it were true I would most likely have one of these and I most certainly do not.

I decided instead on a few items from my new favorite store. I also could leave without getting myself a little end of year gift; hidden from the hubby until about 10:49 last night when he found me organizing the new bag. Anyway, I was standing to the side of the register waiting for the girl to wrap the teachers' gifts when the lady at the cash register walks towards me and says in a stern mom voice, "Excuse me you are going to have to give me those." At first I was like, "Is she talking to me?", but I quickly realized she was talking to a lady in her mid 60s who was perusing the spinning stationary rack. Apparently the lady had put two pens in her purse. I swear to God you would have thought this was happening to me. My heart started beating as she was talking to this woman, who I believe was with her daughter or perhaps her niece. I think niece because she didn't refer to her as her mom.

The salesclerk continued to probe the woman and say "Give me the pens, I saw you put them in your purse. You are going to have to leave the store immediately and never come back. This is not the first time we have asked you to leave. We have caught her one other time putting things in her purse. I will save you the embarrassment of calling security, but I am going to ask you to never return to this store." She did give them back to her rather quickly and without incident. As a matter of fact she sort of had a perplexed look on her face.

I really felt bad for the girl she was with. She apologized profusely and explained she was on several medications. The salesclerk said nothing, which quite honestly what was she going to say, "That's okay."? The girl she was with continued to make her return and shortly after my gifts were wrapped and off I went. J and the boys were just outside the store eating their mall favorite, Auntie Anne's Pretzels and I said to J, "See this lady over here? Look at her. I am going to tell you something about her in the car."

As we walked past I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Maybe she is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's or something. She didn't look like the type to shoplift Vera Bradley pens, but then again I have seen those women on Oprah who steal shit for the sake of stealing shit and they look normal too.