For Elizabeth McClung

Beth at Screw Bronze challenged all of her readers to go do something fun this past weekend and then post about it. I did a fun thing for Beth-- I went to a cemetery (just like Beth and Linda did, but minus the corsets) and took pictures of pretty things growing amongst the graves. These three shots of the same buds from a tree beginning to bloom were my favorites.

For you, Beth, because I remember that you took pictures of yellow flowers the last time you went outside your house for a walk without the chair. Some red flowers for a pretty lady in a black chair and red corset in a cemetery.

Survivor: Kindergarten Edition

When I heard about all the controversy surrounding Kid Nation, I recall thinking that teaching children that reality shows, in any way, resemble reality, couldn't possibly be a good thing. But perhaps I should have worried less about tough, adaptable kids, who are often smarter than one expects, and a little more about the people placed in positions of power over kids.

You see, it seems one Wendy Portillo has turned her classroom into Survivor: Kindergarten, and the first child not to survive, so to speak, is a little boy in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Alex Barton has frequently had disciplinary problems, and one morning last week after he returned from the principal's office, Ms. Portillo led the class in telling Alex what each student didn't like about him, and then took a vote. By a vote of 14-2, Alex was voted out of the classroom.

Take a good look at the picture at the top of this blog. Does that little fellow look "disgusting" or "annoying?" I don't think so, but that sweet little blond boy sure does-- thanks to a teacher who allowed classmates to apply those epithets to him. He's five years old. Far too young to understand that some classmates do not know that his developmental disability means sometimes he does things hard for neurotypical kids to understand, or that sometimes the things he does may be seen as disgusting or annoying, but that he, Alex Barton, is a person wholly separate from others' perceptions.

Alex now says "I'm not special" repeatedly to himself, and has trouble sleeping at night.

Oh, and, by the way?

The authorities found no evidence of emotional child abuse. No charges will be filed, except the civil suit Melissa Barton is considering.

Summer Vacations

Okay, you can probably tell from my last post that I need to get away from it all for a while. So, summer vacation planning is go!

I can probably only really afford to take 4 or 5 days away, over a long weekend so that I don't miss too much work. I'd like to go by car, so I can take my dog with me; he's just barely too big to ride in the cabin of an airplane, and I wouldn't dream of shipping him in cargo in the summer heat-- especially since he's a black, long-haired dog.

I had been hoping to get to the Allied Media Conference, but it's looking increasingly less likely that I'll be able to get time off in time for that. Plus, I can't make definite travel plans until I get in touch with.... well, someone really hard to get to hold still and talk to me about this long, expensive trip I'm supposed to be taking to meet up with him and get something really, really important.

So it looks like July or August for my summer vacation.

I found this vacation guide on Disaboom, which is a downloadable PDF and suggests theme parks, music festivals, national parks, baseball stadiums, and state fairs, and has accessibility info for all the destinations. So that got me thinking, I've never seen Yellowstone. Maybe I should go?

But then again, Rocky Mountain National Park is only a short drive away, and I have a hard time imagining a park that's really more scenic than the one practically in my own backyard.

Maybe what I really want is to go somewhere and be a beach bum for a weekend? But Florida is so hot in the summer, and I don't really want to go to California again; I want a vacation to somewhere I've never been.

Decisions, decisions.

Have Had A Lousy Month: Degrees of Bad

I have had a lousy month.

We all have our degrees of bad, and we all have a breaking point between "Life happens" and "Okay, now this is a BAD, inexcusably bad, depressingly, awfully bad month." I have reached that point. No, I'm not dying, and neither is (knock wood) anyone in my human family. But:

• Lost two of my animal family suddenly
• My fiance's grandfather is dying, slowly and painfully
• Fiance has been nominated de facto caregiver and is suffering from caregiver fatigue
• Fiance's family dismisses his caregiving work- giving injections, changing adult diapers, transfers in and out of wheelchair, monitoring bloog sugar, giving medications, providing companionship, cleaning, doing laundry often stained with human waste, as easy and unimportant to the point he is considering disappearing for a few days to see how the rest of the family copes with caring for Grandfather without him
• On top of all that, the two pets we lost were his favorite rat and her son
• Two pets that were abandoned with me and had been in loving homes for over a year lost their homes after the adopter became chronically ill
• My favorite coworker is moving away
• A forum that has been my support network through many things has appointed a moderator who really has it in for me, personally attacking me in every thread, and the forum owner says I- the female of course- must be the problem
• My best friend and his first love broke up and he is devastated and depressed
• A good friend's mother is dying of cancer and now I get to be the one to call my friend and tell her that one of the rats I was sending to her as a companion and friend died after his neutering surgery, for no apparent reason
• Fiance's childhood best friend overdosed on drugs and nearly died, then disappeared back into the world of addiction and his whereabouts are unknown
• A friend of a friend overdosed on drugs and died
• Can't get ahold of someone who I'm supposed to be doing a 30 hour drive (one-way) to meet and get a pet from.

In short, life sucks right now, and I have nobody to really tell except the wide world of blog-friends. Everyone else in my life I have to try to be strong for, and being strong all the time means nobody to lean on, and lots of other people leaning on you.

Ugh.

I did something nice for someone last night. I will do something nice for someone tonight. I have to keep trying to believe in good karma.