Merry Christmas to Me

Never was there a girl who wanted a Christmas miracle when I was a girl.  Instead I was the poor girl of a welfare mother. I had big dreams though, but most of my Christmases were about no toys, sometimes no tree, and the constant refrain of we are just poor that is the way it is.  So I learned to on the one hand love the story of Christs birth, and hate the American Christmas experience where everyone got amazing presents and I lied about what I got so as not to be embarrassed.  Even with my foster family it was not much different. So by the time I was an adult, Christmas became a difficult time of year, that I tried to get through.  

On my own, I found there were many people like me with similar experiences, and we  made our own experiences which helped somewhat.  Many Christmases I spent drunk with friends, longing inside for a loving old fashioned Christmas.  Once I got sober, I realized so many other people experienced Christmas the same as I did, with tons of issues.  I felt less alone, and even appreciative at the holidays. I spent them close to meetings and friends.  I got sober 12-26-1989.  The day after Christmas, the last of my humiliating Christmases.  Though I made peace with others like me, I resigned to the month of December being a difficult month.

Seven years into my sobriety I married a man in recovery. I married him in December.  The following year was to be my eighth AA birthday.  It was different, and I finally got my Christmas miracle.  At 40 years 10 months and 5 days I gave birth to my only child. He was born on Christmas day in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The next day his father brought in my 8 year chip to celebrate my sobriety.  No Christmas day has ever been the same for me.  The real healing for my childhood and my issues came through the 12 steps of AA. The closest thing to a true spiritual program as any church in my opinion.  However, having child and being able to experience a childhood without poverty and full of love and attention helped me to heal in ways I could have never predicted. 

Each year when Christmas comes along, I revisit this amazing miracle, Christ's birth and Nick's birth. Before you harshly judge me, it was the only name his father and I could agree on. So yes, his name is Nicholas, born on Christmas day, 1997. His father wanted Damien, and I could not see naming him after the son of Satan,  The Omen. I wanted Aidan, but like I said, it was destined to be Nicholas. So this year he is 15 years old. He is a great boy, smart, funny, and I am so happy to have him as my family. I am going to be 23 years sober, his father passed away when he was 6 of a brain tumor.  Nick is almost a man now.  Christmas has taken on a whole new meaning.  So to you and yours never give up the search for a miracle.

Creepy and Crawly!!!

I live in Arizona.  I grew up in Oregon.  When I lived there, there were bugs. There were the most beautiful garden spiders black and yellow/orange. They made huge webs on the back pouch and she became my pseudo pets. I always named them Charlotte.  I would come out of the house after a good rain to see the web glistening in the light, like a stained glass window pane.  The dutiful spider sitting in her web was waiting for the next fly or mosquito. We had rolly polly bugs that rolled up in ball when you touched them, good-luck lady bugs, and even the annoying, bump creating mosquitoes. They were always lots of bees and flies buzzing around.  When I grew up I knew there poisonous bugs, but frankly the bugs that lived around me were my friends. I was in awe of their abilities and their lives.  Then I moved to Arizona

 

Now Arizona creatures are exotic compared to the insects I remember.  First there are scorpions. I have had a bitter relationship with them this summer.  What's worse, there are more than one kind of scorpion.  Scorpions are poisonous.  In my garage this summer was a 3 inch bark scorpion, laying in wait for a wonderful wolf spider living out there.  I just picked up a piece of cardboard and there he was.  Now I have read their exoskeletons are hard.  So you need to hit them with something hard, a shovel or hammer.  I pick up the soft end of the broom and stabbed at him, and so he ran away.  Just so you know my son found him a couple of days later, hit him with a hammer and grandpa scorpion was dead.  Not before he got my wolf spider though, she was gone too. I did find one in my closet though, so she might have just moved indoors where the scorpions were not as prevalent.  Most of the time scorpions are not fatal, but who wants to discover they have some problem they don't know about, that makes them the exception, not me.

The wolf spider threw me off also, as they are huge (the size of a quarter) and look like they have fur on their bellies.  However, they are not poisonous, and usually leave humans alone unless bothered.  They live on and under things, and don't build a web. I usually checked on her a couple of times a night.  She had favorite places she sat. I found her a week or two before the scorpion.  

Then the scorpions came indoors. One night I was cleaning up the sink in the kitchen. I look up and there is a baby sitting on the backdrop behind the sink tail up, just looking at me.  He was about 3/4 of an inch. So I took a hammer and crushed him.Then I called an exterminator.  I saw about 5 before the exterminator came and none since. I live in a newly developed suburb, and my neighbors had horrible problems with the invaders. It required them moving their beds away from the walls to keep the scorpions down.  One thing I learned is that people put drinking glasses around the legs of baby cribs. They can't seem to crawl up glass.

We also have a relative of the brown recluse who is called the Arizona Brown Recluse.  He has same venom, but not as damaging as the original.  We have rattlesnakes, tarantulas (timid things, and I kinda like them), a coral snake, and the worst offenders besides our scorpion infestation are the Africanized  Honey Bees.  Frequently you hear someone in the hospital from swarming bees.

We have mosquitoes that carry the West Nile Virus. This year it seems to really more prevalent in Texas.  So we have a state of creepy crawly things that can bite, sting and even KILL you. I have left off the fungus in the dirt that can invade your lungs with Valley Fever, and field mice that can carry Hanta Virus.  I have left off the fire ants,  don't you think we have enough already?  

It is not that we have these things, many states do, it is that we have all of them.  We have bear attacks in the woods too, but for the sake of this blog I want to sick more arachnid-insect-reptile focused.  The small creatures that share our space with. So you really do have to be one tough cowboy to live in the desert.  Me?  I am learning you throw a few bucks at exterminators, find house with a pool, and you can live pretty comfortably here.  Not only that Arizona has some marvelous sunsets!!

Prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse.....No Really

       

 

  My son who was fascinated by zombies at 10.  He was sure there could really be a zombie apocalypse.  I have always tried to listen to his ideas and thoughts, even if in my mind I was thinking, "Yeah right, it would never happen." This was only his latest, first aliens, then bigfoot, now a zombie apocalypse. So in trying to answer him I tried to think of a situation where something like that could occur. After all the first time I saw "Night of the Living Dead", I was 13 and was sure that it was possible.

           In my mind I actually came up with a way, some medical virus would come along that rendered a human, "dead like" or "zombie like".  Where they were out of their minds, maybe they craved protein or something like that.  So they went after well humans which looked like walking kabobs. With the myriad of virus' that seem to become resistant to medication and grow and change form, this did not seem that out of reality.  In fact science fiction a lot of times becomes science fact.  Then the writers and producers of 28 Days and 28 Days Later stole my idea and made a ton of money. 


           Today as I was reading through articles on the net I came up with a link to a government, that is right I said US government site that has a blog called Public Health Matters Blog.  The blog was Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse.  Now keep in mind this blog was really about preparedness for emergencies of all kinds.  It gave the history of zombies (after all you need to know your enemy to defeat it).  The author likes "Resident Evil", as I said, I am more of the "Night of the Living Dead" person.  It states the origins of the word is Haitian and New Orleans voodoo rituals. It depicts that same idea I had that it is some infectious virus passed on through a bite, or a meal. That it sets up a craving.  What I thought was interesting is that it gave specific preparations to take to protect yourself. Here are some:

• 1 gallon of water per person per day
• non perishable items you would regularly eat in a day
• tools-utility knife duct tape, battery powered radio
• clothing-a change of clothing for each person and bedding
• documents-drivers license, gun permit(ok that one is mine), passport, birth certificate
• basic first aid kit (not helpful for zombie bites)

I have added some of my own:

• baseball bat (suggestion on comments to wack your way through zombies)
• shot gun or hand gun (your preference of course, head shot remember)
• hammer and nails-if you need to hole up in a house and have to nail doors and windows
• wood- this is only needed if you are going to hole up in a house
• gasoline and matches ( you can burn up zombies if needed) 

They also suggest finding the nearest zombie free refugee camp, sitting down with family and coming up with an escape plan, and meeting place in case you are separated. All really good plans for a zombie apocalypse or an other emergency, like Hurricane Issac. I found it interesting I discovered this blog the day after the hurricane.  Do you think the universe is trying to tell me something?  Ok, I will prepare for a zombie apocalypse.  To all the people in the gulf affected by Hurricane Issac, my prayers and thoughts are with you. Now I need to get my zombie kit together!!!

Is There a Need for Robin Hood?

 


The link below goes to an article about a Mayor in Spain who is marching through the Andalucia country side,  like a modern day Robin Hood. Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo is the mayor of a small town named Marinaleda in Southern Spain.  He is gaining fame by taking food from Supermarkets and giving it to the poor in his community. Is our world economy so out of balance, that Robin Hood and his merry band of men, need to rob from the rich and give to the poor?   Well  Mayor Gordillo does exactly that as he sets out on an anti-austerity walk.  He and the protesters have occupied banks and stole food to feed the poor, disturbing the government of Majarino Rajoy.

Mayor Gordillo has immunity from prosecution, so he can not be arrested. Though he is giving up that right to walk across Andalucia to protest. In fact he says it would be an honor to be jailed while standing up for the poor. His plan is to continue to occupy all the banks and grocers. As he stated, "The robbers who have caused this crisis must pay the consequences for what they have done."  He states, "he was attacking banks for repossessing the homes of people unable to pay their mortgages, and supermarkets for damaging local farmers. The euro is a fraud that enriches some and impoverishes the rest ... There are families going hungry, and small farmers who are ruined. We are asking for a change of the political model.”

In the USA we had the Occupy movement which was a movement against both social and economic injustice. Most large cities in the US had an occupy group that was active in their cities. It was cleared out mostly by December 2011. What started out as a committed non violent protest, turned in to a large sit in with undefned goals.  The movement is still active and is going globally, though now it seems more specific in goals. For example in the Czech Republic there was a protest of unions and civic associations that began April 28, 2012 and lasted about a month.

So my question is, have we the ordinary people of the world become so frustrated with the leadership of our nations, that we need to be rescued by Robin Hood?  Or do we need to step up and give a show of solidarity?  I remember a movie in the 1970's called "Network" that has this line that goes, "I am as mad as hell, and I am not going to take it any more." Is that where the civilized world is? I say yes, we are that mad! In the USA we are getting ready for a presidential election where there is no real winner, except for the elected official. The people are not necessarily going to benefit, so we do need Robin Hood and any merry band of men or women who will help us! Yes, and we need to give a show of solidarity.  So I say good For Mayor Gordillo of Marinaleda, Spain. Below is a link to the original article.

 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f1b089d2-e885-11e1-8397-00144feab49a.html#axzz23vcVQQTT

Spongebob Gay?

Ukrainian commission wants to ban ‘gay’ SpongeBob and Teletubbie ‘losers’

By Eric Pfeiffer, Yahoo! News | The Sideshow – Thu, Aug 16, 2012

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A Ukrainian commission wants SpongeBob Squarepants and other shows banned (Wikicommons)First they came for the Simpsons and now they want SpongeBob Squarepants. The Ukraine is considering a move to censor several children's shows after a new study from a conservative commission labeled the shows "a real threat" to the country's youth.

The Ukraine's National Expert Commission for Protecting Public Morality released the report, which attacks several U.S. and international programs as detrimental to the country.

Psychologist Irina Medvédeva is quoted in the study, alleging that children aged 3 to 5 years old, "pull faces and make jokes in front of adults they don't know, laugh out loud and repeat nonsense phrases in a brazen manner," after viewing the shows.
The Ukrainian paper Ukraínskaya Pravda reported on Thursday that some of the shows under fire include "Family Guy," "Futurama," "Pokemon," "The Simpsons" and "Teletubbies," which the report says are, "projects aimed at the destruction of the family, and the promotion of drugs and other vices."
The Wall Street Journal reported that the study results first appeared on "fringe Catholic website Family Under the Protection of the Holy Virgin."
While the accusations sound a bit silly, a 2011 study by a University of Virginia professor claimed that watching just nine minutes of SpongeBob could adversely affect the attention span and learning abilities of 4-year-olds.
The Ukrainian commission had previously attempted to ban other shows, including "The Simpsons."
Some of the accusations leveled against the programming in the study:

• SpongeBob Squarepants: "gay"

• Teletubbies: "Deliberately aims to create subnormal (men), who spend all day in front of the television with their mouths open swallowing all types of information," and promotes the "psychology of losers."

• Shrek: "containing sadism"

• South Park: "reincarnation propaganda"

• Japanese Anime: "A clear example of sexist propaganda"

The study concluded that the programming represents  "a large-scale experiment on Ukrainian children" to "create criminals and perverts."

So Americans whose children watch these shows, do we consider ourselves criminals and perverts?  So what about Bugs Bunny, and Elmer Fudd were better?  What about the Jetsons, Magilla Gorilla, Felix the cat? I say ridiculous, these are just childhood cartoons, they entertain, maybe teach a moral or two.  Anything more we attach to them is really an adult issue.