Bowling

Despite fighting fatigue, I went with Mark and some of the cast of Annie (Sherard) bowling this evening. The boys came too and they were in heaven. It was a nice bonding event for the cast. I am not sure how many of them were in attendance but is was a fun evening. Luckily I will get to sleep in tomorrow. We have a carolling event for Rotary in the afternoon. I have things to do. All this partying is interfering with my preparations for next weekend.

School Winter Concert

This past week we experienced the boy's school winter concerts. I had to go both nights, because their classes were scheduled on opposite evenings. Most parents only had to experience one evening of the *fun*. Now, I know my disappointment with the evenings has to do with my extensive performance and directing experience and the quality of the Christmas concerts that I saw in Fort McMurray. These did not quite measure up, but that's okay. Everyone had fun and the kids gave it their all. The gym set up is imperfect and the acoustics suck so you can't do much with that. I don't quite understand why all the classes sing along to a recording (including vocal track). Yes, I know the music teacher can't play piano and conduct at the same time, but why not a karaoke track so we can hear the kids, not the vocal track? Oh well, I would do it differently. Some of the parents are up in arms because the focus is more secular than spiritual, but it's a public school so that doesn't bother me. There are Christian programs (LOGOS) in the Public system and you can always go to the Catholic system if that's what you want. Our school is 1/4 Muslim and unless you are going to also include religious songs from their faith (as well as any other faiths in the building, as I am sure there are others) then secular is the way to go. I personally think that they could just find good songs for kids to sing (not rewritten words to Christmas Carols like "Joy to the World, My Shopping's Done") and that would be better. The end song that the whole school sang along to, Sarah McLachlan's Ordinary Miracle is a good example. Just a good song that shows us whether or not the kids can sing. Anyhow, I am not upset about the lack of Christ in the Christmas Concert (they call it a Winter Concert).

I was upset, however, at the impossibly bad manners of the parents and grandparents in the audience. There were people saving an entire row of seats so that people who arrived before those who sat were standing room only at the back. I can understand saving a seat for your spouse, but not for your spouse, 2 sets of grandparents and a couple of aunts and uncles! Ridiculous. Then there were those camera jockeys who would stand up, either in their row or in the aisle and block the audience from seeing the concert so they could get a picture of their child. I would have liked to see Gibson's group, but the mass of picture takers blocked most of the performance. There were also unattended children up and down and moving all over the place during the show, during performances and between. And then there were the talkers. Right behind me, both evenings, I had people chatting when their children were not onstage. Excuse me?! I am here to hear everyone, and I didn't talk through your child's performance so shut the @$%@$ up! I left Tuesday night so annoyed. Wednesday was better, but only just barely. I was appalled and am certainly not looking forward to future concerts unless the behaviour of the audience improves.

Prepare for the Onslaught of Boydom

Only 1 more school day until the Christmas holidays officially begin and I find myself 'dealing with both boys' for 2 weeks. Luckily Mark is closing the store for 2 consecutive 3 day weekends. That will help. No doubt he will want to travel on one of them, but nothing has been mentioned, so I am hoping for real down time. Funny thing about holidays. For me they are often much more work than everyday. Some people get to rest, but they don't think about the other people who are facilitating their rest. Ah well, there are many things I like about the holidays and I shall cling to them and deal with the other stuff when it happens. Any way you slice it, I am one of the lucky ones on the planet (http://www.100people.org/statistics_detailed_statistics.php) so a little imposition in a time of extreme plenty should not be drama-worthy.

I have held off on the tree and I am hoping I can keep it at bay until Monday so that it can be our 'activity' for that day. I plan to get a pre-cut, but not assembled, gingerbread house for construction on Tuesday. Today we started some of the tree decoration crafts I picked up at Michael's the other day. Gibson (with my help) made 3 and I made 1. There are 24 in the box so we can make a few more over the next few days. Although the Wii and DS can entertain to a certain extent, I am hoping for warmer weather so that frolics in the out of doors are possible to augment the crafting. This is only for the first week. The week after Christmas is usually okay because of the discovery of the new toys.

I will be doing the Christmas meal as per usual and I have to get my turkey and all the other required stuff tomorrow (at least the stuff that will keep). The rest I will pick up during the week prior. Mom and Dad will be hosting Christmas Eve (oyster stew) and I need to sort out everything to make sure I have all the required gifts for that. I have cookies made so that's good. I need to get Mom and Dad presents and a couple of thing for my nieces and nephews. It's a lot, but I should be able to get it done.

Productive Day

I am almost done my Christmas cards. So far I have 'finished' 67 of them (about 10 of those need stamps, however. I have more to do, but I ran out of pictures of the boys so I will have to get more of those tomorrow morning and finish the cards off tomorrow afternoon. I postponed my big shopping day until tomorrow because I was worried about my sitter having to drive all the way up here on the roads in their current condition. It is supposed to be better tomorrow and that will be nicer for me, as well. It may get warm enough to not make gassing up the car physically uncomfortable.

Tonight is Gibson's Christmas Concert. Oliver's is tomorrow night. I wish we could have gotten the same night. I don't know exactly whey they don't just put the French Immersion classes on one night and the English classes on the other night, but it may have to do with numbers. I think there are significantly more English classes than French ones. Oh well. Two nights out, wrangling kids on my own and trying to get decent parking. Sigh. At least they will be insufferably cute!

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.