SYTYCD

I’m a little behind, but I’m only going to comment on this week. I can’t talk about Hok leaving and not making the tour, it upsets me. Just kidding, although it is sad, I can see that although he was my favorite, he wasn’t as versatile as the other guys.

So this week, first I want to talk about all the anti-war stuff. I can’t believe there are still people that would be upset over that Wade Robson routine. I am 100% pro service members, and 100% against this war. I personally think the two go hand in hand. Saying that someone who is FOR peace doesn’t support Soldiers or Marines or Sailors or Airmen is VERY short-sighted. The two will never be mutually exclusive. Patriotism doesn’t mean blindly following the leadership of this country into whatever debacle they create. In fact, if you look at the roots of this country, it’s clearly the opposite. Questioning authority is what we’re all about! And about Mia’s jacket - I’m kind of against civilians wearing military uniforms. BUT, I’m sure she didn’t realize what she was wearing. I’m especially against civilians wearing military insignia - like rank (which is what she had upside down on her sleeves) - because people work hard to earn that - in my mind it’s like people buying Olympic medals on eBay and wearing them around (maybe a little extreme, but you get my point), but I still think she had no idea what she was wearing, and she was obviously sorry. I thought it was unfortunate that she wore that jacket on the same night that all the dancers did a peace dance. Whoops :)

Now, about the dancing - I thought Lauren was phenomenal. I like to think that the fact that I called in and voted 5 times for her, and only voted for Jamie once had something to do with the results :) I also thought it was time for Kameron to go - for the same reason as Hok. They’re really getting down to the best dancers now - Sabra is still my favorite girl, and I guess Dominic is my favorite guy. I hope he can hang in there for a while with those really awesome jumpers.

Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List

How is it already the end of the season? Sheesh - it seems like it just started. I’m sad - I thought these last two episodes with her in England and Ireland were hilarious. My favorite thing about her is the totally ridiculous situations she finds herself in in her quest for A-list status. I’m pretty sure that Nicole Kidman would never find herself wearing that tweed dress with the big bow in the drag queen shop. Or on a date with that weird performance artist guy. What a kook. I can’t wait until next season!

The Singing Bee

Man, I would love to be on this show. I’m not sure if I could get up there and do a silly white-girl dance while I was waiting for my chance to mess up the lyrics, but I would love to try.

1 vs. 100

I watched this for the first time last week. I really like the premise, but really am not crazy about Bob Saget. My husband and I really laughed at all the extra information the people always give when they answer. “Well, since my son doesn’t have an ePod, I’m going to guess C., IPOD!” Thanks, dude. For all the extra commentary. Get on with it, already! That’s why I didn’t watch Who Wants to be a Millionaire either.

With that last bit of judgment, I’m going to end my extra commentary :) Good thing I’m perfect! ha ha ha…

Just for info…because LOTS of people don’t know…here’s what Memorial Day is all about: it’s a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service.

Two years ago, I was in DC for a conference for work. I was seven months pregnant, and I decided to hike a few miles through Arlington National Cemetery to find my maternal great-grandparents’ graves. It was so hot, and I didn’t bring any water. It took a little doing (and a lot of sweating), but I found their graves, and I was so proud. As I was walking back to the Metro, I saw a full funeral procession, complete with caisson and I started bawling. Even sadder was all the fresh grave sites at the front of the cemetery.

This little journey was as much a tribute to my unborn son, mother and grandmother as it was to my great-grandparents. My mom passed away on June 5, 1994. The day I went to Arlington was June 6, 2005. My grandmother died before I was born. My great grandfather was a West Point grad, retired as a Colonel in the Army (after serving in WWI and WWII), and then worked for the CIA. My great grandmother gets to be buried next to him, so they rest side by side in the nation’s most well known military cemetery. I cried for all the family my son will never know, and for the proud military heritage I have on both sides of my family. On my mother’s side, military service goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War. On my father’s side, I’m the latest (and the first female) of at least one of each generation serving in either the Army, Air Force or Navy. We don’t have any Marines - yet. But we do have a nurse, a few pilots and at least one Airborne Ranger.

I plan to visit the other national cemeteries where my family members are buried. Even the one in Hawaii where my great uncle - my father (and my son’s) namesake - is buried, after being shot down during WWII.

I hope we all remember to take a minute to remember these men and women - and to be grateful for their sacrifice. I’m certain I wouldn’t be running my mouth on this blog all the time if it wasn’t for them ensuring my free speech.

John Edwards has set up a great site called SupportTheTroopsEndTheWar.com - it’s got a lot of activities we can do during Memorial Day weekend (or every day - if you’re motivated) to voice our feelings that our Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors should not be in Iraq any longer.

This weekend, we visited my brother in law at his new duty station, Ft. Irwin. I’m not going to sugar-coat it, it’s an awful place. The term “God-forsaken” is about as apt as you can get. We encountered many a strange insect and animal in his backyard, it was ridiculously hot, and very very isolated. I feel so bad for him. I was hoping he’d find a little joy and purpose in his job, but as of now (he’s been there a little over a month), it’s not going so well. He’s a Staff Sergeant (E6) in a job (MOS) that has too many Staff Sergeants, and very few Sergeant First Class (E7) positions, so he can’t get promoted until some of those people get out of the Army or get promoted to E8 - of which there are even fewer positions. So even after two tours in Iraq, one to Kosovo and one to Bosnia in the last five years, his promotion potential is very very small. Add to that an inordinate amount of confusion and mismanagement in his new unit, and he is very unhappy.

We talked a little about his first tour in Iraq, and we all got teary eyed because it’s such a depressing situation. He spoke of the good he did (building a school, playing soccer with Iraqi children) but he also spoke of the Iraqi’s inherent distrust of Americans and the lack of trustworthiness of many Iraqi’s.

It’s really an awful situation that our service men and women are in.

After 14 years of service, my brother-in-law is seriously considering getting out. Not because of deployments that have ruined his marriage. Not because he missed the whole first year of his second daughter’s life. But because the Army doesn’t make sense to him anymore. The war in Iraq overrides everything. This means he will forgo his retirement. He’s that unhappy. And this is someone who REALLY REALLY REALLY loved being a soldier. It breaks my heart.

Seriously…although I really do understand the toll these sites take on overworked network connections, doesn’t it seem ridiculous that once again, the rights of our service members are cut short while they’re fighting for our rights? Read this article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070514/military-sites-blocked

There’s really no way to institute this ban fairly. Basically, it will only affect you if you don’t have your own laptop. Which most likely is the younger, enlisted service members.

Recent Study…
I was listening to the daily news brief on NPR today, and they read a story about how an Army Task Force conducted a study and found that the length of deployment is related to instances of mental health problems. This story is on the heels of another story I read online at Time Magazine speaking to how the mental-health needs of the military and their families aren’t met, according to a study conducted by the American Psychological Association.

Right now, Soldiers are supposed to be deployed for 15-months (recently increased from 12 months) and then be home for 12 months. Marines are deployed for 7-8 months, then come home for 7-8 months.

More after the jump… more »

What a world we live in. Today I went to a fun first birthday party at a beautiful city park. On one side of the park was a farm with horses in the pasture. There was one foal, and I walked over with my son so he could see them. He loved it. We played in the dirt, ate fruit salad and chips and salsa and drank Capri Suns. It was such a nice day.

I’ve had this nagging guilt - or as my sister would say, “a check in my spirit” for the last few days about the judgmental posts I’ve been writing. I mean, I still think clubbing a seal is awful. BUT, I am rational enough to see that some villages of people have subsisted on seals for centuries. Just as Alaskan natives have subsisted on whales. What they do is no different, in my mind, than a bear eating a salmon or a snake eating a mouse.

I don’t mean to demonize people that are trying to feed their families. And I have no right to. I was born into a lower-middle class family with two working parents - I always had food and a roof. I may have always been behind on the fashion train, but who cares? I mean, I cared when I was 13, but that’s pretty normal.

The problem is that it’s so hard to decipher what the real cause to fight is here. Is it the big fishing trawlers that gobble up all the fish? Probably. Is it the Japanese whaling ships that don’t properly account for their catches? Probably. Is it the individual sealer that makes 30% of his annual income by participating in the annual seal hunt? Maybe - but I’m a lot less sure about that one. Do I wish they had better aim and really killed the seals with one strike? Absolutely.

Basically, I have no idea what I’m talking about. I’m just talking. And that can be pretty dangerous.

There are people like this guy who is so strongly against recycling, that he’s willing to call Al Gore a nazi. To me, this makes no sense. To him, it’s perfectly justified. I didn’t even realize there were people against recycling. Stupid me. If there are still people that don’t believe the Holocaust happened, and I’ve met at least one (raving, scary lunatic), and there are people that still doubt global warming, and there are people that still think they might find WMDs in Iraq, then I guess not believing in the benefits of recycling is par for the course.

So how do I fight without judging or belittling others beliefs? Even though I’ve been a Christian for many years - this has always been one of my main problems with my faith. I have friends who are Buddhists, Muslim, Jewish. I don’t think the Jesus I love would forsake them - even if they never “prayed the prayer.”

Jeez, I’m really all over the place on this one.

Basically, I want to live a life that I can be proud of. I want to teach my son to stand up for what he believes in just like my mom and dad taught me. But I don’t want to be another sealer, clubbing people over the head with my rants. It seems okay to share information, like the bake sales to save whales. I think people can participate if they want, right? But only if they know about it.

And who am I to say Alec Baldwin is an ass? I’ve probably said something just as bad to my husband. I’d like to think I’d never say things like that to my son, but he’s so small I can’t imagine it. One day he’ll be a surly teenager, and I may very well lose my temper and say terrible things. I hope not, but who knows? I think I was really just so sad for his daughter. That message must have hurt her so much and I wanted him to feel really awful for doing it. And then when his statements - on his site and on The View - didn’t seem very apologetic (apologetic to his daughter, I don’t really think he owes any one else an apology, except maybe Tina Fey, because I love her), I was even more sad for his daughter.

So anyway, there’s a big plank in my eye, and I don’t like it.

I hate how I am able to compartmentalize the war…even able to forget it’s even happening at times. The last two years are some of the few in my life that I didn’t live either on a military base or very near one. I’m amazed at how I’ve distanced my mind from all that being a military family entails.

Here’s a good reminder:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17773294/site/newsweek/

I would apologize for being a downer, but I’m not sorry. I’m only sorry that I don’t make more of an effort know what’s happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once my brother-in-law returned from his second tour, and the last of my good friends came home, and I stopped working as a contractor - planning military blood drives, I kind of checked out.

But the reality is that the rotations go on. The number of wounded and dead continue to grow. The sacrifice amazes me, and humbles me. It’s sad and exhausting to think about. For me, anyway. There so much guilt tied into gathering information - how lucky I am that I was never deployed, that my husband was never deployed. But even now, as other friends prepare to deploy on their third and fourth tours, I’m so grateful to be so lucky. And I feel bad about that. I don’t know what I’m saying here. It’s a little rambly.

Sorry about that. I’ll come back and edit this later.