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a sprinkling of miscellaneous
By heather | November 13, 2007
Because I didn’t post for ARK Sunday, so I have to cover that, and I didn’t post yesterday because it was a holiday and I was holiday-ing (meaning, working from home – where I get more done in 3 hours than all day when I am sitting at my desk), and I want to rant a little, this is like three posts in one. Feel free to put me in my place with a comment or two, because I am really interested to hear what other people think about these things. Be my devil’s advocate.
So to cover the weekend – Alex got his MMR shot a few weeks ago and was one of the lucky few to have a reaction to it. Fever, measles-y-looking little bumps (ooohhhh, so that’s what measles look like…) and general all around misery. Poor kid was also unfortunate enough to be fed something (not the pot pie) by his parents that caused his entire body to break out in hives (big chunky hives) surrounded by a red scathing rash. We think it was pineapple. I physically hurt for him when I would undress him for his bath to see the rash.
It was awesome-tabulous, thanks for asking, especially when I googled “MMR vaccine reaction” and got steamrolled by the “don’t get your kid vaccinated it will ruin him forever” society until I was hyperventilating over the crib to make sure he wasn’t slipping into a coma. I did get a birthday pedicure and now have Russian Navy (or We Are!!! Penn State!! Navy – depending on your preference) colored toes. Unfortunately the pedi was before the googling so the effect was somewhat negated. But the rash is much better today. People have stopped shying away from us in public and the itching/sobbing/cranky seems to have abated.
What I did for ARK Sunday – I made the attempt, I really did – but writing about what I did feels wrong. I’ve resolved to just try to do one nice thing every day, even if the nice thing is NOT doing something. As I get used to this nice-ness concept I hope to graduate from not doing things that would antagonize others Brett others and be super calm and sweet always. Yes. On to the rants…
Dogs. If you don’t live in my part of the country, Michael Vick is not really big news anymore. Or maybe he is, I don’t really watch ESPN and don’t care enough to argue. What got me fired up this morning was a news story that today is the last day that shelters can apply to house the dogs seized from his property in April when the whole dog-fighting thing came out. One local shelter will have 12 of these dogs up for adoption.
If you are looking to adopt a pet are you really going to adopt a dog that was part of a dog-fighting case?
The types of people that would adopt these dogs are a) looking for a mean watchdog to guard their used tire business that is really a front for an illegal drug smuggling operation or b) are looking for a fighter. Or maybe both. Either way, the dog is not likely to settle into a warm, cuddly life with an owner that treats it well. Sure it’s possible, but really? How likely? No family that I know is going to take a chance on a pit bull that was trained for fighting. And at this point, these dogs have been housed in who knows what kind of conditions for nearly 8 months and before that were treated deplorably. So when is it more humane to euthanize them that to continue to subject them to the miserable life they’ve had so far?
And in a classic example of randomness…on to the holidays!
Christmas and Presents. Babies R Us has been playing Christmas carols since before Halloween. If you go to a store and just observe, you can almost feel the level of electric stress in other shoppers rising as more and more decorations appear. Would it be too much to ask that this year everyone just dial down the whole gift giving thing a notch? What are you going to buy anyway, that doesn’t have lead in it?
Well since you asked, thanks to Chris at Notes from the Trenches for this link to Not Made In China products. Amazingly, nothing we own has been recalled, but I find myself looking at everything – especially the stuff that is mostly red or yellow and wondering if I should put it away for a while. we requested that when shopping for Alex, our families keep toys to a minimum. Clothes, pampers, cups, baby gates, college money, but less toys. It could be worse, my friend Jill who at her daughter’s last birthday party got not only a ball pit, but also an indoor trampoline has decreed that all gifts must fit inside a shoebox. And no, that does not include the inflatable princess castle without its air.
My personal prediction is that retailers will recognize the disinterest and start advertising for their lives. Which means more ads, more stupid BEST SALE EVER coupons clogging my mailbox (I’m talking to you Macy’s), more pressure to spend spend spend. I will detach by using my DVR to fast forward through it all when it comes to TV.
What does it say about our culture that we all go around asking each other what we want and no one knows? Maybe its because we don’t want more material stuff, we want time and love and the ability to chill out once in a while. And a crockpot. I really do want a crockpot. See, because crockpot=(dinner already made + extra time)=food=love.
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