Jam Packed Day

Drive kids to school (bus is over 1 hour late)
Child Check
Sneak peek of Gibson's Christmas Concert
Shopping for A's present
Dry cleaners
Empty dishwasher/dryer/fold laundry/wash load
Lunch w/A
Shopping w/A
- Mr. Big & Tall
- Indigo
- Moore's
- Mark's Work Wear House
- Mexx
Tim's for Hot Chocolate
Pick up Ollie
Watch the Wii Play
Make supper - Burgers
Watch more Wii
Visit
Drive A to Mom and Dad's

Just because it's legal...

...doesn't mean that I will respect you after you do it. There are a lot of things you can do that are not going to get you arrested, but if you do them and tell me about them, or if they affect me directly, I am still going to judge you. Suck it up. Some of those things might not affect me directly, but I might still think you are an idiot or immoral if you do them. Some of them might affect me directly, but even if your philosophy is 'that you answer to yourself, and yourself alone' be prepared that I might still think you are a moron or a jerk, regardless of your personal philosophy guiding your actions. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to criminalize poor manners, or poor judgement or even selfishness, but if you live in a world with other people, you should be prepared that they might not necessarily think that it's okay that you act within those parameters.

By the by, I am not really being specific because this isn't about anything specific, just stuff I have been thinking about and talking about with people recently. Sure, over the course of my life I have encountered people who have violated what I thought the social contract was between us and that fuels this, but it's not specific. I am not even mad about anything right now - so if it comes off like a rant - it's not meant to be.

Complacency Weighs on Me

In my blog surfing I came upon the following post:

http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=932

in which Peter Watts, a science fiction writer was beaten, pepper sprayed and detained at a US border crossing when returning to Canada. He was detained and then after bail arrangements were made he was dropped off without a coat in the cold and without transportation (they seized his car). His only 'crime' it seems, if getting out of his car to ask what was going on when the border guards swarmed his car.

I keep thinking about this. I don't know him, but I am appalled by the way this has all played out for him. To be sure, I only have his testimony so it might have played out differently, but no matter how I play it in my head it is wrong. Now, would I have gotten out of the car? Probably not. Now, would I have been flagged and pulled over, probably not. But in our world, you don't really think this kind of thing can happen. You assume that everyone is reasonable and they are obviously not. I worry about my complacency. I avoid risky situations, true, but many situations of risk do not exist for me because of who I am and what I look like. I hear about things like this and I worry about my sons who, in the future, may be walking down a city street (presumed safe) and jumped because they are adolescent males. In our world - this world of plenty that we in North America live in - why do people stoop to inhumanity, like these border guards did. Was there not one of them that knew that abandoning a man in blizzard-like conditions without a coat and transportation was inhuman? I worry and I don't know what to do. It is hard to understand.

Smells Like Christmas!

I baked cookies today. I had to replenish all the ones I obviously made too early because they are gone! These ones will go in the deep freeze instead of the kitchen freezer and that should 'help'. I am enjoying having more nights home. I have a few things to get done and this is the last week of school before Christmas so I have to get a lot of it done before the kids are off. We are no longer YMCA members so I am not doing the YMCA camps this year. It's getting easier with both boys. They can usually do 3-4 hours of relatively pleasant interaction and play before a flare up. I am waiting for the day when Gibson is big enough to teach Oliver that it is not a good idea to hit him. I discourage the violence, with consequences, discussions, strategies for better communication etc... but nothing beats a once smaller child standing up for himself and teaching the older one that it's time to stop or get hurt yourself.

My sister comes to visit tomorrow. It is a busy weekend, but I am looking forward to it! Yay! I told Mark he needed to get his present for her before she leaves on Tuesday morning so he is likely shopping tonight before coming home from work.

Cold.

I'm cold. It's cold. I don't want to complain, because we actually got off pretty easy in it coming so late. It's like Oliver cutting 3 teeth in one weekend - it was a pain of a weekend, but I preferred it to when Gibson took two months to cut one tooth. So, when the dump of snow came on Friday and the temperature plummeted over 2 days, it was fast and shocking, but at least we didn't have weeks of chilling temperatures and having to shovel a cm a day for weeks. I don't know. I am trying to be positive in my funny winter hat.

I Could Understand If I'd Been Drinking...

But I wasn't. I was just out really, really late chatting with folks. However, my 40+ body interprets anything short of 8 hours of sleep as call for a hangover and my head is killing me. Oh, it could be other things, like the temperature drop creating some sort of pressure shift in my body. Usually I feel that in my right foot though (I have broken it twice and I can now predict rain with it). Or, maybe it was caffeine withdrawal because I didn't drink my usual gallons of diet coke yesterday. In any case, I am waiting for the ache to stop because I have the delightful task of driving my go-cart on city streets today and I don't know what kind of shape the roads are in. They were plowing last night in the area I have to go to. I could be lucky.

Last night was fun. A wee wine and cheese and tree-trimming at Joyce's where I visited with folks I like to see and chat with but don't always get a chance to. Much talk of theatre because that is 90% of my life it seems. Some comic banter and mocking and that's all fun!

Tonight I have to go to the auditions for The Mail Order Bride at Walterdale. I will be used in whatever capacity needed, but I really hope to be in the room. I may be manning the front desk. Whatever helps the team best I will do. Another show lining up. It's all good.

Snow Falling on Cement Patio...

Well we finally have winter. We were a little spoiled in it coming so late so I am not going to complain about it. Between Mark and I, the sidewalks were shovelled 4x today and although I have not looked in a few hours, I am willing to bet you can't tell. I also did the driveway and that will help in future as the layers that pile up should be thinner. Let's hope.

I am also hoping the weather did not deter people from getting to Lend Me a Tenor at Walterdale Playhouse. I saw the show in all it's glory on Opening Night and I think they did a fabulous job. It isn't 'high art' but it is hilarious! I could sense some Opening Night tightness off the top, but about 10 minutes in they heard the laughs and loosened up and just ran with it. That's what you do with a farce, get it rolling and hang on! I heard lots of wonderful comments afterwards and I laughed quite a bit despite knowing the script inside and out. Loved so many of their choices!

I cancelled a Best Little Whorehouse (BLWIT) meeting tonight. I did not want to brave the streets in my go-cart, particularly not with the boys and I would have had to drop them off at the store first. Everyone seemed relieved at the cancellation. I did some of the meeting work via email and will try and get more of it done that way since many of my team-mates are super busy people so getting them all in the same room will be a challenge. I am getting excited about the show and now that I cleared a few things from my life I can refocus on the work I started in the spring on it. Yee haw! I get very excited contemplating possible casts and I know I need to banish those thoughts until I see people at auditions, but it's fun to speculate!

I baked cookies today and froze some for Christmas. I will have to hide them in the big freezer so they will still exist at that time. All 3 of my boys snitch if things are too readily accessible! Not fond of the monster cookies and I won't make those again. The shortbread is delightful!