random pic

Home Sweet Home

This one is for Stacy :)

Life has been very domestic lately. I'm looking forwards to the weather getting nicer so I can get out in the yard and garden again. The deck(s) need to be re-done this year and I'm daydreaming about how nice that will look. I bought myself a climbing (red) rosebush and an obliesk trellis for my birthday last week, and spray painted the patio furniture to hide the rusted bits.

See?? Domestic.

I had my first experience with a bad teacher this month. I never really thought about things like that before being a parent. What should I do when one of my children aren't getting the attention they deserve from an instructor? How sticky do I want to be on the subject? I mean I don't want to be one of those sports moms who demands the best from both the coach/teacher and the poor kid, but on the other hand if I'm paying money for a class, the teacher damn well better know my child's name after two weeks.

The story was better told when I was all riled up about it, but here goes.

T and L were both in Yellow Seahorse swimming lessons last quarter. L's 4th time through and T's 3rd. This isn't uncommon as the point of the class is to get them comfortable putting their faces in the water and floating before moving on to any actual swimming. It usually takes a few runs through before a kid is ready mentally and physically. L passed the last class and T was only needing to work on back floats. With a little more work she would have it. So T was registered in Yellow Seahorse again and L is on to Orange Jellyfish. This quarter L is doing great in his class.

T on the other hand was put into a class of 4 kids, her and 3 younger boys (a set of twins and another). These little monkeys had never been through the class before and from the first class screamed and clung to anyone they could (parents, lifeguards, instructors) instead of going in the pool. I'm not joking, if I was the parent I would have taken it as a sign that my child wasn't ready and go back to weekend visits to the pool for a bit. Especially after it continued for the next few classes as well. ALL THREE BOYS DID IT!!! So while the boys were freaking out for a half hour, the instructor was (a) trying to calm them down (b) ignoring T or (c) going through the paces with T but her attention was on the boys.

I walked into the class last week a couple of minutes late and waved the teacher to the side of the pool to come get T as is required for safety.

She looked at me funny and said, "Is she in this class?"

She's so lucky I didn't scratch her eyes out.

I marched into the lobby and laid everything out for the receptionist who directed me to the Head Lifeguard who directed me back to the receptionist and T is now registered in a much quieter class with an instructor who actually looks her in the eye and talks to her. She is focusing on T's back floats because she actually reads her class notes.

The worse part in this is my own complacency. I should have moved her sooner. The class was obviously going to be bad from the first day, but I like to see how things settle instead of jumping the gun. Next time I'll know better. There is usually a lesson to be learned where there is adversity, but if I am paying $50 for a class I want the lesson to be the one I'm paying for, not a philosophical one.

Transylvania by evening

It might be because of the seasonal hiatus, but is it me or does gaming seem less and less durable?

The old group seems to be parting ways bit by bit, between schedules and RL commitments. Dan and I have sort of talked about it. He thinks I'm being silly. Maybe he sees something that I don't.
I hope so...maybe it's some sort of 7 year itch thing :)

So during the hiatus Dan has been training a new group of gamers with New Orleans by Night. Which is very fun, but his heart still lays in D&D. He has approached the subject of me running my Transylvania campaign for our less experienced friends. I'm thinking about it :)

With the old group, I always had a hard time getting past my inexperience (and the big boots I had to fill). I didn't nessarily know the rules as well as I should have. I always worried about keeping everyone happy, above and beyond the call I think. I think that was disruptive to the story. Or maybe it wasn't, maybe the story was disruptive to the gameplay...I don't know. I'm hoping that I can enlist Dan for help when it comes to rolls and rulings. I have a lot more fun just setting the scenes ;) Hopefully then I can find my groove and the numbers will come with experience.

I would love feedback from anyone who played in my shortlived Demon, Vancouver, or Transylvania campaigns.

For the New Orleans group...Don't worry, this isn't even an option until after Montreal :D

They all called me Anna...

I read the most recent post over at Thursday's Child which had this vid posted from uTube...

That sent me on a surf through the creators other stuff where I found this one.

Which eventually brought me to this site.

Dove (soap) has started a huge campaign going right now against the fashion industry standards and sizism. They have a foundation called the Dove self-esteem fund the campaign for real beauty". They have been touted on Jay Leno, Good Morning America and by the talk show diva herself...the illustrious and diet prone Oprah.

I read today in the paper that Italy is making it law that models must adhure to a size/weight standard (above the skeletual norm). Exciting stuff.

It must be January. These kinds of demonstrations always effect me more when it's dreary outside.

***

Guess what my new years resolutions are this year?

- Spend more time being concerned about the enviroment and doing my part to reduce emmissions...

- Work on my parenting skills and look for new avenues to be effective. It's easy to just find a technique that works and stick with it, but the kids are constantly changing and what worked last week won't nessisarily work today. They are sort of like the flu that way ;p If I want to be a good parent and teach good lessons and promote good self esteem, I need to stay on top of their changing behaviors... ...wish me luck.

- Oh look! Weight loss!

Even though my husband insists that I'm a hottie and somewhere in my brain I KNOW it when I look in the mirror... I still don't fit into most store bought XL clothes. Mind you I get ignored by the sales people in the plus size boutiques now...but still. How scary is that? The GAP tells me that I'm too big to wear their clothing so I need to diet till I am?

Since this blog began (march 2004) I've averaged about 2 clothing sizes a year (Size 20 down to 14) I'm pretty obsessed with losing weight the laziest ways possible,and I'm guessing that besides gaming, me whinning about feeling fat has been the number one topic of my posts. I'm obviously not THAT concerned about my weight. My health isn't at risk....I'd have put more effort into losing weight if it was. But I must have a complex about it.

- Identify all the things I have complexes about and get over them! That's a new one as of today :) If I were to sit down and write them out my list would be as long as my arm. Stay tuned this year for Sylentlucidity's mental detox.

Next time I whine about my weight, give me a smack will you? I should fracking know better.