J'Espere

Before I could publish my post about Ferguson, another article popped up in my newsfeed. This time about a 9 year old who shot a shooting instructor at a shooting range: 9 Year Old Shoots Instructor . It actually wouldn’t have bothered me that much- after all, any time you handle a loaded weapon you are risking death- except that the gun she was shooting was a Uzi. A Uzi. The real thing- an automatic weapon preferred by the Israelites in the 1940s. And she could not handle the recoil and started spraying fire, killing her instructor. It’s being called a “tragic accident”. But is it either? To be sure I understood that a 9 year old American girl (please don’t even TRY to compare our children to child soldiers) had been given a Uzi as a recreational toy (and yes, if it is used by a child, it is a TOY).  So I consulted Wikipedia and here is what I read: The   Uzi   ( Hebrew :   עוזי ‎, officially cased as   UZI ) is a family of   Israeli   open-bolt , ...

True Story. I am not a minimalist. Don't be shocked. Over the years, I have read a ton of books about organizing, decluttering, making room for more by having less. I went through a phase when I was a teenager (thus procuring me the nickname "Buddha") when I tried to get rid of everything. I remember reading some novel in which the main character's sister did this, and the parents ended up just sneaking all of her stuff up into the attic. In the story she subsisted on something like three pairs of socks and a pair of jeans. It didn't work out for her. It didn't work out for me. I was fantasizing about living out of a backpack, kind of like a hitchhiker. Doesn't fly for a southern girl. In what kind of world do you not hang on to your mother/aunt/grandmother/someone you met once's....something.     If you've been a reader for a while, this might not sound like anything exciting or new from me. "She's reading a new organizational book, she...

     Today is SL's second day of daycare. You might be wondering why, considering I'm still off for the summer and have a few weeks left. But right now, as I sit and type this, my baby is being fed lunch by someone else. A delightful someone else, but someone else nonetheless. And so, the house is silent. I will explain.      We learned last spring that our current babysitting arrangements were not going to be able to last this year. So we did what any American working family does. We panicked. I spent hours after school driving from daycare to daycare, each time leaving in tears at the thought of my sweet baby being one of many in a room of cribs. Sweet women led me down hallways and showed me curriculums and play areas, and children who were having fun or eating or sleeping or simply waiting for their parents. We talked about tuition payments and deposits and if they would put on sunscreen and naptimes. And I would smile and take my packets and walk to m...

 Over the last few weeks, I have heard the term "misogyny" more than any other specialized word in the English language. It has been all over the news, the internet , and of course Facebook. Misogyny: the hatred or dislike of women or girls. The word has come up more and more in the last few weeks because of a terrible crime in the US, but also the world. In the last month, there has been the kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian girls, the stoning death of a pregnant Pakistani woman fighting for her right to marry for love, and the shooting of seven people in Santa Barbara by the now known Elliot Rodgers. What did all of these have in common? Hatred of women.     I hate the word hate. It's so strong and sounds so final. But I also think it perfectly describes all three incidents. Originally I didn't think much about the connection. They were so horrific individually that it was hard to fathom that there was a connection. But there is, and since I now have a sweet, prec...

Disclaimer: I DID NOT run the Tar Heel 10 Miler. It is a race I absolutely love and adore and run almost every year, but this year, it just wasn't going to happen. SL has done a great job of turning "training days" into "reigning days"- meaning, she reigns and I listen. But I knew I could eek out the Fleet Foot 4 miler, plus Laurel Hill is included (good thing? bad thing? still not sure) so I just signed up for it and told Matt that I was going to voluntarily wake up at 4 a.m. and go run in Chapel Hill. There are so many things I love about the Tar Heel 10 miler, but my favorite is easily the fact that it's such a comfortable race. 10 really might be the perfect number, and the race attracts so many different people- from serious runners interested in a fast training course, to novice run/walkers who know the pace time will allow them to finish in a reasonable amount of time. Plus it starts early- 7:30 a.m.- so you can be at Sunrise Biscuit before 10 if yo...

                My friend died. Those are words I struggle to say. I haven’t lost a friend in a long time, and when I found out on Thursday night what happened, the words stuck in my throat. When I checked my email and saw there was one from a sorority sister I hadn’t heard from in a long time, titled, “Prayers for the Sanford family…” I wasn’t expecting to read that Courtney had died that morning. And at first, it just didn’t make sense. A FB post from her had popped up in my feed that day. “The happy song makes me HAPPY.” It was posted one minute before she crossed the I-85 Business median and collided head on with a truck. The wreck blocked half of the highway for 3 hours. I saw the wreckage. I went online and looked at the photographs even though they say you shouldn’t do that. And she wasn’t in any of them. So, see, no one was driving the car therefore she wasn’t dead. I raced downstairs to show my husband, and say, “Could someone have ...

Today a bill will hit the floor aimed at forcing transparency in companies when it comes to salaries. Currently, according to Working Mother  magazine, 68% of married women work outside the home and 75% of unmarried, separated or divorced women do. That's a lot of women working to bring home a paycheck and contribute to their family's security and well-being.  And it's been going on for a long time. I've mentioned this before but my grandmother worked outside the home as a nurse, even after she was married and had kids. My mom worked a good part of my childhood. And I am working. Before I start blasting the people who feel it's okay to pay someone less based solely on gender or race, I wanted to say why I'm working, and maybe why others are working too. There is the financial reasons of course, but since I'm in education I'm definitely not the breadwinner (cue irony). Then there is the idea of a career. I was raised to believe that I should have a care...