Author: Katrina

Kids at Christmas

December 7, 2010

I almost don’t think I should write about this since I’m sort of repeating stuff I’ve said quite a bit already. But, screw it, here’s another!

Right now, I’m at work and getting ready to send the first batch of NYRA’s holiday cards (yay!) and have 97.1 streaming online, the DC version of the generic Clear Channel light rock station that carries that annoying Delilah show in evenings and in December plays 24/7 Christmas music (with a few Chanukah songs thrown in here and there so they can pretend they’re all inclusive). I love Christmas music, I’ve been over this many times, yet there are several songs, which I’ve also mentioned before here and here and here and here and here, which are awful and keep getting played for some reason. Two of the worst are “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”. While the latter thankfully doesn’t seem to be getting played quite as much this year, the former is of course getting played over and over.
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The Amazing Ash

December 6, 2010

It was four years ago today I lauded my legendary red eye tetra Cedric and his tankmates for their survival despite my astoundingly poor job of taking care of them and the aquarium.

Cedric, as you know, lived in my tank for an astounding four years and seven months, right up until about 23 months ago he swam off to fishy heaven. Nonetheless, his spirit lives on, that spectacular little fish who hung on to an admittedly boring life inside a little five-gallon aquarium, for such a long time. None of my other fish have done that!

Or, actually…

My serpae tetra Ash is about to beat that record! Cedric lived in my tank for 4 years and 214 days, the exact same amount of time it has been since my sister brought me Ash on my birthday in 2006, along with other serpae tetras Quigley and Templeton, plus sunset molly Pyro. Pyro died only a couple months later. Lost Quigley sometime last year. Last February, when the big ass Superbowl weekend blizzard knocked out our electricity for 30 hours, this meant my house went that long without heat, and as such the fish tank got really cold, killing my algae eater Stripe, and nearly killing Ash and Templeton, though once the heat was back on, they were fine again after a bit. Except Templeton died a few weeks later. Ash was all alone until May when I got another algae eater, Aurelius. So now it’s just the two of them.

Congrats, Ash! For your resilience under the care of someone like me, who should probably never ever be in charge of any living thing.

Bumper Stickers

December 5, 2010

So I was out driving this morning and noticed a car with not one but FOUR of the same bumper sticker on it. It was one of them Red Cross stickers saying to give blood. Four of that sticker, side by side, on that car’s bumper.

You see cars like this now and then. For some reason there needs to be like five Obama ’08 stickers because just one doesn’t get the message across. Or interestingly enough, seeing more than one of the same environmental sticker.

I wonder the point. I mean, more than one sticker of a similar message, yeah, that makes sense. But of identical stickers, right next to each other, can’t see one without being able to see the other. You slightly sacrifice the aesthetic appeal of your car to have these stickers on there, so you’d think that space being used should be used well and efficiently. I’ve got a NYRA bumper sticker on my car, the “Constitutional Rights Are Not Just For Adults” one, though it’s been on there a few years and I’ve been meaning to take it off and slap a fresh one on there. Might put a second on there, perhaps one of the two that debuted this year, “Age Is Not An Accomplishment, Youth Is Not a Sin” or the rather nice “Students Are Not School Property”. In any case, it won’t be just another Constitutional Rights one next to the other one. That is just silly.

The Holidays

December 4, 2010

Oh, a chat! Let’s listen in…

Christmas: Hey, Chanukah, how’s it going? On your, what, 4th night now?

Chanukah: Yup. And you’re still three weeks away, I see.

Christmas: Why are we so far apart this year?

Chanukah: Happens.

Christmas: I don’t like it. Prefer you were closer to me, so your people and mine could celebrate at the same time!

Chanukah: I’m usually closer to you. But maybe I prefer it this way. Everyone thinks I’m just a Jewish version of you anyway, when that is so not true.

Christmas: Well, you’re similar in a way.

Chanukah: How so? My celebration is about our candle oil lasting eight days instead of just one when we were trying to rededicate our temple after we were attacked. Yours is about… God having a kid.

Christmas: I mean the lights! Yes, there was Jesus, but that involved a big star lighting up the night sky. Yours too involves lots of lights when things looked dark. Not to mention countless other Winter Solstice celebrations that have merged with me, all with the same basic idea of celebrating light and warmth when the world is otherwise cold and dark.

Chanukah: Yeah, that’s another reason I don’t want to get too close to you. You’re sort of a December holiday Wal-Mart. It seems every single Winter Solstice or other celebration this time of year has just gotten sucked into you. Well, it’s not happening to me!

Christmas: It’s not so bad. Look, your days jump around all the time. Maybe if you were more a part of me, they’d be set days for once. Less confusing.

Chanukah: *choke* What?! I do begin on a set day. I start on the 25th of Kislev. The Gregorian calendar isn’t the only calendar, you know!

Christmas: Okay, okay. I’m sorry. But, hey, we’re both the 25th of a month! That’s something!

Chanukah: No, it’s not. Just… stop. We’re not merging. Menorahs and dreidls will not be part of you. They’re ours.

Christmas: Well, that doesn’t seem fair. Everyone can join us! Trees and wreaths and candy canes and presents for all!

Chanukah: It’s just a matter of preserving our traditions. Besides, we do have presents. We give gifts on each of the eight nights.

Christmas: Ah, you do exchange gifts then?

Chanukah: Yup. Our families meet for meals, light the candles, exchange the gifts, sing songs, play games, and do all sorts of other things.

Christmas: I’ve pretty much got all that, too.

Chanukah: So it’s even less reason for a merger. Besides, plenty of my people still celebrate Christmas.

Christmas: And that’s wonderful. The more the merrier.

Chanukah: 🙂

Christmas: Ohhhh… I see what you did there…

Children’s Art

December 3, 2010

So at my job, just like everywhere else this time of year, we get holiday cards from people and businesses we’ve dealt with over time. Our first one arrived a couple days ago, with some artistic image of Texan cowboy boots or something on it (that’s Christmassy somehow, I guess?). Well, it was one of those cards where their images are made by children as some sort of charity thing. Okay, that’s cool.

Except when I glanced at the back of the card, then I got annoyed. Among the explanations that the cards help kids with cancer, good stuff like that, was that this card’s artist was from Midland, Texas… and was 18 years old.

Uhh, no. Just… no!
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Vindicated!

December 2, 2010

I hate cheese.

That’s one infamous thing about me that anyone who knows me even a little bit knows or will find out soon enough. When I first mention it, I get some strange looks and shocked reactions, as if I’d just praised Satan or something. Some wonder if I’m healthy. Some ask if or assume I’m a vegan. A college roommate said “but cheese is a nutrient!” (If that quote hurt your brain a little, that’s nothing. The same girl once told me that I shouldn’t carry such a heavy backpack or I’ll give myself cerebral palsy… yeah.) I’m not really a big fan of dairy products in general. Don’t care for yogurt. Only ever buy milk if it’s to have it with cereal. I like ice cream, of course, but most ice cream has very little milk in it anyway. I was glad to notice on a Cool Whip tub one time that it contains no dairy (or, well, at the time, it does now). I mentioned this to someone and the immediate response was “yeah, I know, that sucks, stick to Redi-Whip instead” or something like that. They just assumed the observation of no dairy was to me a bad thing, but not at all. To be normal, you must want lots and lots of dairy products.

Then I saw yesterday’s Cracked list, 6 Insane Conspiracies Hiding Behind Non-Profit Groups. Go read it. I’ll wait.
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Guilt by Demographic

December 1, 2010

To begin yet another December Entry-a-Day Blogathon here on Sure, Why Not?, here’s a resentful, unforgiving edition of…

SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!

These anti-Semitic assholes who refer to the Jews as a whole as “Christ killers”. Drives me up the damn wall. They are so-called Christian assholes who hate Jews and want to excuse this feeling as justified because “oh noes, they killed Jesus!” Never mind that Jesus himself was Jewish, as were his mother and disciples! Never mind that it was the Romans who had at least as much a hand in the crucifixion as the Jews did, yet I don’t see anyone referring to Italians as Christ killers.

Of course, feels pointless to say that this is irrational. That’s a given. All hate is irrational.
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I’m Only Half Arab

November 26, 2010

So yesterday was Thanksgiving, and we did one thing a little different. Rather than just stuffing our faces at our own house, we fixed some food and drove into Virginia to my aunt’s house to spend yesterday evening there. This aunt is my mother’s sister, and my mother’s side of my family are Christian Palestinians. My dad’s side are just boring WASPs. So that makes me, of course, half Arab.

What does it mean to be half Arab? Well…

I’m only half Arab. I eat my hummus… with tortilla chips!

I’m only half Arab. I make spinach fatayer… meaning I stuff a spinach filling into Pillsbury biscuits!

I’m only half Arab. I’m willing to martyr myself for what is right… by telling my relatives that my Jewish friends are awesome!

I’m only half Arab. A distant cousin tells me in Arabic that I’m wonderful… and I actually have no idea what she just said but I’m sure she’s pissed at me!

I’m only half Arab. I like to make tabbouleh… except the bulghur wheat is a pain in the ass, so it’s really just chopped tomatoes and cucumbers in a bowl. Close enough!

I’m only half Arab. Sometimes I get “randomly” selected at airport security… and sometimes I don’t!

I’m only half Arab. I’ll take my baklava… alongside a nice piece of pumpkin pie!

I’m only half Arab. I drink coffee from a teeny tiny little cup… while watching the Thanksgiving NFL game!

I’m only half Arab. I go to bed at 2am… which my family tells me is way too early!

I’m only half Arab. I yell everything I say… which makes me the quiet one!

I’m only half Arab. My relatives go on and on about how I need to find a good man and get married… which I just sort of ignore.

Aladdin and Two Genies

November 23, 2010

So I just finished watching Aladdin on ABC Family. Love that movie! Even taking into account I’m partial to Disney movies in general, it’s awesome. Hard to believe it’s been eighteen whole years since it came out, and I still have most of the songs memorized. And I recall how, back in like 1992, we were all amazed at the wonderful graphics that went into the Cave of Wonders tiger entrance.

But, as often happens when you see a movie you’ve seen many times over many years, you start noticing things. You start to question why certain things happened one way when some other way would have made more sense. Or some other way would have solved or sidestepped a plot relevant problem entirely. Lord knows Cracked has any number of lists along those lines!

What I’m thinking of now is at the very end of the movie. I’m not giving a spoiler alert because, well, I’m not sure there’s anyone who hasn’t seen Aladdin, and even less likely anyone would, well, care about a spoiler to a damn Disney movie. They’re cartoonish fun, not murder mysteries.

Aladdin tricks Jafar into making his third wish, to become an all-powerful genie. So Genie does it and Jafar is all happy and powerful at first, only to get sucked into his newly materialized black lamp. In his itty bitty living space. Then Genie flicks the lamp off into the distance to the Cave of Wonders.
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Trick or Treat!

October 31, 2010

Now for a pumpkin-carving, spooky edition of…

Here’s to You!!!

So I raise my glass (or perhaps a Reese’s Cup!) and say, “Here’s to you, trick-or-treating!”

Happy Halloween!

As I write this, I’m sitting at my front door with my laptop, periodically getting up to pass out candy to lots of adorable neighborhood children in adorable costumes! Yay!

I have to say, I’m happy that the rise in helicopter parenting and stranger danger hasn’t totally demolished trick-or-treating, although those have certainly taken some massive blows to it, varying depending on location. When I was living at my grandmother’s house a few years ago, there weren’t very many kids around on Halloween, which was disappointing. But now that I’m in a different neighborhood, there are a bunch!

Yet I get people I know getting apathetic about it, who… ugh… don’t give out any candy and just leave the lights off that night. See, I could never do that. How could I not participate in trick-or-treating? I remember trick-or-treating myself, occasionally having to pass by the darkened doorsteps of my boring neighbors who seemed to be going “bah humbug!” to the whole thing. Makes no sense.

It’s great! Sitting all evening with a bowl of candy I’m totally taking from now and then. The kids come up, dressed up in costumes they put some amount of effort in, all smiles, and I give them some candy and they smile even bigger and say “thanks!” Awww! 😀

I sometimes wonder if this contributes to the objectification of children. I guess, the idea does seem to be “aww, you’re so cute! here’s a treat!” But I suppose that’s more a side thing, while there is good in the social aspect of visiting neighbors under happy terms, walking around the neighborhood on a lovely autumn evening (seriously, in my entire life, I think it has rained on Halloween only once or twice!). And it is an evening when, despite the occasional presence of parents to make sure Pedobear doesn’t attack, the kids themselves truly run the show. Therefore, we must keep up trick-or-treating, not grow apathetic, and keep Halloween and all the good clean fun it carries with it alive!

And to not ruin it by trying to make it more adult.

Although, for your information, absolutely none of the little girls I’ve seen out tonight, or on any Halloween, despite what the news says, have been dressed like prostitutes! 🙄