He is a man

This morning as I slowly woke up and realized my loving husband was not by my side I wondered briefly what he was doing. Three things came to mind: he was either playing poker online, reading Yahoo sports, or looking at porn (all these things are associated more with men than women). Then I realized it could be any combination of the three. I rolled over, snuggled back up in my bed and told myself I could sleep soundly knowing my manly man was up taking care of things.

High school fears

My daughter starts high school in 3 short weeks. This is the cause of much stress for me. My daughter has been a follower the last 3 years in middle school. She has chosen to pick up cultures that are not her and to change her ways to suit the "friends" that will give her the time of day. This has bugged me for 3 years and I have tried to talk to her and help her be herself. She did this towards the end of her 8th grade year and she really shined. She had friends (that weren't thugs or being sent to alternative school) and was taking pride in her looks and even to a small degree her grades.

We have taken her out to do a little clothes shopping and her dad has all but had a heart attack. He just doesn't get that the clothes of today are a little more revealing and that his daughter us blessed (or cursed) with boobs. We have finally compromised on some trendy looks as long as I tack the shirts a little more to help cover the cleavage. Ok....one thing down to help her on her path to make high school great.....she will have great clothes.

She has her room set up like she wants (even thought it isn't completely done). Her computer (her first one) is being delivered today. We will get the clothes tomorrow. So I am setting her up to help her create a great high school experience. I am giving her the tools to help create the person she wants to be.

While taking to my husband about my fears with high school he tells me he is worried too. Ok, who are we kidding here.....my husband has no idea the kinds of things that we should be worrying about because he was a model kid in high school.......star tennis player, good to his parents, always followed the rules, made good grades, was in honors classes, and when he wasn't doing tennis stuff he was working at a job that he had since he was 14. If he based his worry on what his teen years were like then I would have to say that my daughter will have no problems. Unfortunately she is more like me than him. My high school experience was much different. I was in a sexual relationship in my freshman year, a mom by January of my sophomore year and had learned how to cheat the system so I could skip without worry of losing credits by my junior year. And that is just the tip of the ice burg. When I said this to my husband he tells me "Thanks, I hadn't even thought of half those things". Ummmmm, no wonder he isn't really freaking about high school for our daughter.

Brainwashed in the 80s

This weekend while talking about the 80s with my husband and the movies they are making about old 80s cartoons something occurred to me. In the silence of my room I was going over all we had talked about and things I had watched on the VH1 show "I love the 80s" and realized I was brainwashed in the 80s to love gay men. I have no prejudice in me when it comes to gay culture, never had. My dad always told me I was just liberal and would grow out of it. But I don't think I can (or even really want to) because I was brainwashed.

Think on some of the 80s icons and cartoons of the time. The Smurfs.....Smurfville was full of male smurfs and one female smurf. Did anyone see a problem with this? I didn't at the time, it was just a sweet little cartoon that entered my life in 1981 and even now I don't, but I see it more in an adult view now. Maybe the smurfs were gay. Then there was He-Man (and I was a huge fan of this cartoon as a kid, I have no idea why) and looking back on clips of that cartoon made me think of the Ambiguously Gay Duo from Saturday Night Live. Then you have George Michael.....The love of my teen years. How I missed the fact that he was gay I will never know, but I loved him and still kind of do when I look back at the 80s version of him. Wham was wonderful!!! Then there was Boy George that helped me to realize that drag queens weren't a problem at all and could be good performers. Then there was Twisted Sister. All of the hair bands with their long locks and make up.......I am sure there are others I could find. I loved the 80s for all that it gave to me and now I understand even more why I have a fascination and love for gay men and once again I can look back and thank the 80s.

Why the hell can't they do it like I tell them?

Life would be so much easier if the people living in my house could just do things they way I tell them. Come on...there are two ways to do things....the wrong way or my way. How hard is that to learn?

My daughter has gotten the privilege of painting her bedroom. She wanted to do something fun with the walls and got my approval. Now it seems to me, if I am going to paint stripes on a wall then it would make sense to LEAVE the tape on while I paint the stripes. Even after telling my wonderful 14-year-old this and my 16-year-old sister who was helping, somehow the message didn’t stick. So they take the tape off and the stripes are a little funky around the edges. Then when I tell them to keep the drop clothes on the floor they don’t do that and so the only room in the house with "new" carpet, now has paint on it. It was one little disaster after another. But it is all ok for me since it isn’t my room and I don’t have to live with it for the next four years. She is the one that has to sleep in there and look at the room she has created.

I have to remind myself frequently that my daughter is a teen and has all the freaking answers. I guess the next time I have a problem to solve I will consult the wisdom of the teenager. Because don’t they know it all??

Donating to the Retards

So my husband and I are watching the news late one night and there is a special interest story that comes on. It is a sweet little piece about a group of people who have started a softball league for mentally retarded children. They talk about how it gives the kids a better self esteem and shows many clips of the volunteers helping the children bat and round the bases. It was so sweet that it brought tears to my eyes. At the end of the segment the station posts phone numbers and addresses so you can get more information or donate to help out this organization. (Now it is important to know before this next part that I am involved in a greyhound rescue organization right now) Anyway, without missing a beat I turn to my husband and say "If I wasn't already helping the dogs, I would donate to the retards." I thought he was going to fall off the couch laughing. He has since written down my quote and has it posted on the fridge as a reminder of my inability to think before I speak.