come together... right now... over me!

...and our children

I have long been an advocate of teachers

i have long been an advocate of students

i have long been a proponent of the current educational system

the trouble that i have is that if i want to make the system better, then sacrifices will have to be made.

when it comes to battles of improving education, someone always has to be right and someone always has to be wrong. is that really necessary? to that, i say no.

i truly believe that it is not the idea of "my idea is more right" but the idea of "lets see if we can get it all together and do better for the education of our children".

SYNERGY goes a long way. i learned in a college level Afro-Caribbean dance class that in order to make a dance speak, you had to combine many elements. my son goes to a public charter school and i will say in all his 6 years of public, private, parochial, and other charter schools, he is getting the best offering for advancement.

guess what??????
his teachers are not union members.
i am a full supporter of unions that work, but i think the way teachers are treated is deplorable and the trickle down is uneducated children who will do society no good in the next 20 years.
we have to pay teachers what they are worth, reward them for what they do, and offer consequences for those who don't meet the requirements of the future of America.
hiding behind a union who will hold you up in the system even if you should NEVER be teaching children or tenure because you did your time is disappointing to me.

will we lose people in the fray? absolutely.

but there must be sacrifices for growth to happen. think about these things:

1. dendrite pruning

2. rose bushes

3. young peach trees

Goddess

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Ask NOT what your country can do for you...

There should be no religion in our government. The people who govern may be religious, but that should not sway their decisions. As well, lawmakers should not run on the premise of morals and faith. Though we want them to lead and live by example and be strong in their faith, we should want from them not to judge others by what they do and enact policies that are FAIR to all. There is so much more that we can do as a nation.. We can speak up, we can act out, we can find an audience. but it must start in the home first, community second, and government last. The people we have the ability to touch are the closest to us. When we start small, we can achieve great things. Goddess
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the goddess raps on Evolution of empathy and the ways that it’s shaped our society.

watch this. this is how i have always thought and i swear when they stated talking about mirror neurons, i was like FUCK YEAH! i am floored. it is possible, and as the Lorax said….. unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. it’s not.” we truly are a society of caring beings. we have to find ways to get back to that. when i see glimpses of that change, i just want to put them into boxes and find a way to replicate it over and over again and sneak that shit into the water supply. ya feel me?
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Why listen to me? I'm just your mother.....

I sat and watched him all night, eating like a puppy who has just discovered a new food. I can't count how many times I gave him "the look". He kept on putting the food in his mouth. When the food is good, sometimes it is hard to stop. Ice cream, cookies, cake , pie He reminded me of the kid from that Charlie and the chocolate factory, you know the one who got stuck in the Chocolate River tube because he was so fat? yeah. that kid was MY kid on Christmas. He rolled around on the floor like a drunken midget and finally found his way to bed (he camped with me because i knew what was coming but decided that i didn't want a repeat of the Jimi Hendrix episode) So he blew chunks around 1am. all i have to say is yuck, yuck, yuck and double yuck.*sigh* His uncle and i did some direction to help him clean up. i had to stay clear of the bathroom for at least 15 minutes because of the smell. *sigh* I have found that you can only nag so much then you just have to wait and see and hope that they learn. Let's just pray he did... Goddess
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Change is good... all the time

If you watch nothing else in your life with a mission for change, watch this 20 minute clip with a direction of where our wisdom may work for us. in my personal experience, this is how i feel. this “game” that i am forced to play in order to do what is right some days knocks the wind out of my sails. i operate on the idea that we need a huge change in not how we live, love, and work, but in WHY we do it. last night during our family meeting, we touched on grandma Melernea’s gold kaiser card. Barry Schwartz talks about the janitors who have the wisdom to do their jobs well with the intent of offering caring service to others. when i think of my grandmother and the fact that she did housekeeping for as many years as she had when others ask if she is a doctor, the answer should be “no” with a reply of “better”. like the janitor who cleaned the floor in the room of the comatose man TWICE because the father who had been sitting vigil for 3 months didn’t see it done and was upset; like the housekeeper who did not vacuum because another family who had spent a great deal of time in a waiting room were asleep; and for the janitor who stopped mopping the floor so that a patient who was trying to regain strength could walk the halls. we have to remember that so much of what makes this world a fantastic place comes from those who society looks at as the bottom of the pickings pile. we should never give up hope that doctors, lawyers, politicians, and yes even businessmen on Wall Street can reach for greatness by being more like janitors and housekeepers and persons who work with the public and do their jobs well and with wisdom simply… because… it … is … right Goddess
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Goddess Rambles about Charter Schools

i do see some successes in the charter schools in my area. there are populations that have been painfully under-served. in my case, Black students... yes i know there are many other students who fall into this niche, but i will only talk about what i know. the goal in the school was to give everyone a chance at a quality college-prep educational opportunity. the downside is the proposal was fought like it was the plague. we had a school, the school was empty. we were not shuffling kids about, we just wanted a place for OUR kids... and we take everyone but hear me out. We had to go grassroots to lift enrollment. we pushed in our churches and through our families and we now have to turn children away. our schools are some of the highest in the state of CA at least if not in the nation for charter schools. now that the schools are doing well, other want to sign up. i was on the waiting list for at least 3 years before my son was admitted. if we could open another school, we would be able to increase enrollment. our high and middle school are on a campus that has the ability to house roughly 2000 students, we have half that. it is almost as if we are being set up to fail because we are successful. there are other schools that have closed down. why not take them over? some points that frighten people. 1. non-union teachers 2. unconventional methods used to educate (sure they don't fit the norm, but they work for certain students and we have studies to back that up) 3. makes other schools in the district look bad (my solution to that is for the regular public schools to step up and make the changes necessary for success for ALL of their students) because a great deal of this is from the perspective of a parent of a gifted child in a public school where there was no GATE program, no instinct from teachers so overwhelmed with extremely high student numbers and lack of funding to manage their classrooms effectively (i rarely fault the educators and i don't fault them in this case either) , I felt i had no choice but to step out of the neighborhood school to help my child succeed. His teacher suggested in the 4th grade that i pull him and try to get him in charter. it is a tough call for administrators, educators, parents, and in many cases even the students. i truly believe that charter schools can be the catalyst for change in the educational system of America.
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Ceeelooooooooooo Whyyyyy? do y'all think he's "Crazy" now?

my initial reaction on NYE… cee-lo green messed up some lyrics. the world may actually end tomorrow. maybe he did an Xtina moment and flubbed the lyrics. anthems sometimes draw so much charged energy that you can’t help but flub the lyrics. this is a guy who, at some point in his recent resurgence as a pop icon, stood on a stage dressed as a star wars cast member singing about how we think his ass is crazy! all i could believe was that he made a mistake. i was sitting at my SIL’s that night when he came on and what she said stuck with me…

“I hope he practiced”

well… cee-lo changed a word in the Lennon song “Imagine” and i can only believe that Yoko rolled over in her sarcophagus on new year’s eve. folks are mad because what was deduced versus what he actually meant to say didn’t mesh. He meant no harm. ahem, and i quote,

“Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyric guys!”

i was married to a devout Lennon worshiper (and i am not saying that lightly), and i couldn’t even think of a joke about the man without the fear of having to scrape my soul off the floor after the tongue lashing i would have received. i still believe that sometimes you have to change the culture to change the Culture (emphasis added. dissertation to be submitted later). the huge idea of religion being a little something for everyone is what might lead one to believe that we need no organized religion at all. i would like to believe that is what mr. lennon meant. if we all had a perfect religion, we would have billions of little churches set up. * cee-lo decided that a slight grammatical change might change the Culture. gotta start small man. next time, baby steps although i know what you meant. rodney kind got a load of crap and people still tease about his simple statement too…

“can’t we all just get along?”

Can the Lennon’s legions be accepting? probably not in this lifetime, but i think my man Cee-Lo is gonna be just fine. Goddess *this is all my own opinion, so it may be true or not. similar to how religion might work better for all as truth on an individual level. Watch it for yourself
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the military drawdown. will we sit and wallow or be called to action ourselves?

there are many provisions made for members of the guard. in the instance of this particular serviceman, he did not have a job that valued him enough to allow him extended leave. that should be a given for anyone who hires a protector of our country. they should allow them to come back to the job they held while protecting our nation. I do not blame the Obama administration for this specifically. this is the case always when we have military drawdowns. if we look at the situation with the funding cuts to our nations education system, the same turmoil has been created... dilapidated buildings low funding for key programs low test scores. what is worse for our schools is that we cannot start a war or join a conflict to raise the bar on the bottom of the heap educations our children receive in public schools; hence, charter, private and home schooled children are becoming the norm. war is easier to assemble for than to disassemble from. everything looked fine when the nation was at war. we have so much more to focus on within our own borders. we wanted them home... they are coming home... WE AS A PEOPLE have to make sure they are taken care of and honored for their service. unfortunately, GI (government issue) means that the government owns you and can toss you about as it pleases. it is a form of servitude, still voluntary, with the perks looking no less for wear as when young men were drafted for Vietnam in the mid '60s where does the way out of this begin? perhaps the way out begins in the minds and hearts of our nation’s people, young and old. we have a duty to support not only our military personnel, but also the future of our children, and the elders who have raised us. there is so much for us to do. so much more... Goddess
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'Barney Fife' vs. 'Nigger'?

i’m gonna put it out there just… like… this…. IMHO… Pawlenty called President Obama ‘Barney Fife’ because he couldn’t call him ‘NIGGER’! what the hell is up with all this name calling and shit? let’s pull it together my dear politicians. cut the crap and get down to business. i know cultures have names for everyone and everyone has their ‘nigger’ within their groups, but this is our PRESIDENT and he is at least owed the common courtesy you would give to a stranger on the street. political functionality has been replaced by political entertainment. I think it is time, fine time, that we at least revert back to mudslinging instead of the name calling. maturity is what you are looking for in a person who is to endorse your bid for the president. not a name caller. remember when we used to get in trouble for that shit when we were in school? time for some politicians to grow the hell up! Goddess
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Christmas sometimes depresses the fuck out of Goddess!!!

I know I have to put most off this shit in the proper light, but MAN! What I wouldn't give to enjoy a pleasant surprise every once in a while. Christmas has always been one of those holidays when I so look forward to that special day of food, family, fun, and surprises. I am a giver and i truly look forward to those special occasion when i am actually given something. well..... Perhaps my heart is broken and it was my own son who faced the responsibility of handing out broken hearts today. He has been working himself into a frothy mess trying to get his ass to BIG LOTS without me to buy a couple of items of interest. I was excited as most children are thinking i was going to get a cute little something my son really wanted to give me to show me how much he loved me and was into the christmas spirit. he came back with a hand-buzzer and a tube of green and orange Goop! not his fault. i have to lower my expectations of being treated in a special way the way i WANT to be treated. Goddess knows she set herself up for that but you know what i always say......it is a pain in the ass to suffer from an incurable case of HOPE. *claps hands* "that's it kids! Pity party is over. nothin' to see here!" Goddess.
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Fuckwad...Fuckiedoodle...Homewrecking Ikea!

Cleaning this house is going to take a combination of Freecycle, a yard sale from Hades and some Zanax to get done! There is no way I am going to get this house cleaned with all that is in it. I am going to have to start tossing things.
Then I think to myself. What am I going to do with all my books? My lost socks? My clothes that don't fit? my Time? My energy?
I am so sure that there will come a time in the future (whenever that may be) when I need those books for PowerPoint 2000, that they are still in my closet collecting dust.

*do you hear screeching car wheels?*

Well I sure as hell do and it is fine time this house gets a real tearing down.

That little lady on Poltergeist was wrong too so I make note to myself not to call on her. I don't think she would be worth my money.

I came home today and stared and stared at my house.

Laundry in the living room. My work desk items packed from preparing for a strike blocking the patio door. My TV room is just a mess with nothing. It is neither messy, organized or orderly. I don't have a word for that room.

My son's room is full of his mess and I have committed myself to turning that over to his great-uncle for maintenance.

The spare bedroom just begs for attention, but I can't get that far.

My bedroom is where I need to start. But do I want to strip it down to the bare walls and start over or just rearrange it.
Let me start by saying that I have rearranged this room at least 6 times in the past 4 years. Rearrangement is not working. The furniture is cool, but I have just too much stuff in there. I have not enough closet space and the clothes I try to squeeze in there I can't squeeze into myself, so why do I continue to keep them around?

Shit!

I have a 3 day weekend and I am going to dig in. Just one room.
My bedroom.

Anyone up for a yard sale?

...

...

...

Anyone???

Goddess














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Non-Custodial Parent relief my arse!

Once again, I am faced with another Sunday on a 1st and 3rd weekend.
My son leaves for his fathers in the late afternoon of saturday and I pick him up on the early evening of Sunday.

some folks would say that I should be happy to have the time off but what most people don't realize is that the time my son is at his fathers house , I have barely enough time to think let alone, try to get all of the things that I have neglected over the past 2 weeks and get the rest that I so badly need to catch up on.

I slept in this morning until 10am. I then went to cut the front lawn. It is now noon and I am sitting here at my computer, looking at a living room with all the shit on the floor swept into a pile by the patio door, three loads of laundy to do and 1 load of towels.

As I turn my head to the left and look behind me, I see a kitchen that is just begging for attention. I have two bathrooms that I just shut the door on most days because they are at the bottom of a monumental list.

No time for myself pisses me off. I am stretched beyond what should be allowed for single parents.

This is not how single parenting should be. That is why it is better to raise a child together and equally, even if you are not together anymore.

I watched a little TV last night read a little of a new book I would love to finish sometime in the next century and hit the sack.

Now I have weeds to pull on my patio and the laundry and the kitchen and the tv room. did I forget to mention the tv room. Jeezus Mary Mother of God.
That is another nightmare.

I want to say f*ck it and head on out to the movies but I know this stuff needs to get done.
Bad thing is that I only have 4.5 hours left in my day to get anything done because I have to leave my house to head downtown to pick up my son by 5pm.

I have a frriend , a lovely friend, Kathy who caught me and called me on my sh*t by recognizing that I never ask for help, so now I have to allow her to help me because I am at a level of overwhelm where I want to say "fuck it" all the time. She is right.

I will ask for help.
I can ask for help.
There are so many things that i just give up on.


Oh yeah... I CAN do Algebra *thanks Terrie*

correcction... 4.25 hours now.

Goddess






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Exercising to get away from the kids? You Betcha!

More parenting videos on JuiceBoxJungle

I don't have time to feel guilty for getting time to myself and away from my familial chaos. I find that when i have time away from the boy genius, I am more sane when he wants me to sit and play an hour of Star Wars on the Wii or Star Wars on the XBOX or just a friendly game of chess *smiles*
My thought is that he is just about to turn 8, and I had better do what I can to stay healthy and in shape as I am going to be doing this for the next 16 years (you don't see your kids leaving home for good at 18 do you?).

Now that I have confessed, there is one exercise that I would love to get to do more often by myself and that is bike ride. I have a rack on my VW that can hold two bikes but I can't seem to get myself to believe that it is okay to leave the boy and his bike at home for these riding escapades.

To me, it is like going to see a children's movie with no children.
I am most sure some of you know how I am feeling.

I have to work on that
*makes note to self*
Goddess

Technical snag but i still support my union.

WOW! I have to try not to be pissed when I sit here unable to sign on to the union meeting that is being held online. grrrrrr

something tells me that I am just going to have to wait and watch a recorded version of the biggest union meeting in the history of the CWA union.

I registered, I waited for the instructions and I went to the site and logged on around the designated time and I am still hour glassing after 45 minutes.

hmmmmm. Did they do a test run? nah.

Today at work must have been the last straw for the management staff. They are on call and ready for anything and the company starts to refer to them as lesser employees by trying to get the union members to get their drift by telling us that what they are asking from us is far better than the shitty plan they stuck their managers with. Usually, you see comments on the company sites about union bargaining littered with messages from managers saying good things about the company. After they dogged out the managers two days in a row by mentioning that the health plan they have sucks rocks, they finally lashed out.

I was waiting for Big Brother to swoop down and wipe out the messages, but not today...I think the company computer guy must have gone on a vacation... or has stopped following the company rule of wipe-it-out-if-it's-not-towing-the-company-line.

Some of the comments really got me thinking about how management gets screwed and how we cannot be mean to them because part of their job requirement is to follow company policy and work during strike.

Does it make you anti-company if you don't subscribe to all of the company's policies?

Maybe it is time for the managers to consider walking out with us. Now that would stick it to the corporation. From what I understand, managers have a 2500 deductible which means that they have to see the doctor a total of 65 visits per year in order to have the company pick up the tab at that point. Some of the comments from the managers stated that the only cost savings they had from their medical plan was the small discount they got on each doctor visit price.
If there were to be any type of catastrophic illness a family would be wiped out by having to pay medical bills up front before the company would take over and pay their share.

I am very disappointed by ATT for the way they have put down their management staff as well as the core wire line persons who keep this business running even if we aren't making as much money for them as we used to.
What the union and the company need to do is come to an agreement that is fair for ALL employees.

Why not have the employees, managers and executives share the medical cost. I think that if they worked it out, it would balance out quite well.


Shame on ATT

what would I give up to have a contract RIGHT NOW!

what would i give up RIGHT NOW for a contract.

I would give up that paid FLMAwithout a doubt. They do need to back down on some stuff because some of them are still thinking like it is 1980. You can't always get what you want. The worst part is that they are ripping us off on the health care. There is no way to get them to hear what we are thinking. That is the problem.
If we speak out against the union, they point us out to be union crashers. So be it I say. I have no shame in telling them that they are asking for to much and fighting a fight that I don't think we can win on the backs of the employees.
The employees are stuck in the middle between the union and the corporation and the only folks who will suffer will be us.
I would love to get the jobs back to CA and the people who got screwed out of jobs a good deal too. We can handle not having more money. We just need to be able to take care of our health without having to file for bankruptcy.

Sometimes I feel like the union did not take enough time to hear how we felt and what we really wanted to fight about.
We got a survey out that gave us an opportunity to vote on what we were willing to strike for but we never got a return on that survey when it came time to authorize a strike. I would have felt more comfortable making a decision on something that might send me into bankruptcy court.

Was my decision to vote "no" appropriate? yes. Did it make a difference? Not to the union or the members who voted yes but doing the best and voting your conscience is the best that you can do.

I have enjoyed a wonderful Easter and hope that we don't have to go through the whole crucifiction thing again during negotiations.

g

insight ad nauseum

What i am starting to learn about people is that they are not what we see on the outside. What people are is any immense mix of many circumstances and many events and other people and past lives. Things that we have never experienced. We can never trick or fool ourselves into believing that we know on on person 100%. That is not to say that we should have trust in on on person.
Faith in on on higher being or on on higher power is what speaks the truth about wether or not we are willing to accept everything as always being on on part of something else.

The world looks on on little different to me since this past week and all of the things that have been going on. I am very proud of taking the time to learn from others that everything is not as it seems.

I am currently reading (listening to) "how to see yourself as you really are" by HH the Dalai Lama.
We must try to live our lives as if there will always be something more to come and make corrections for our next time around (if you believe that) or just for this (if you believe that).

Our religious beliefs teach us all about how we should live and ho we should treat each other. If we are taught kindness and love, acceptance, forgiveness, and altruism from the start, i am sure the world would be on on better place.

What we cannot lose sight of is that there is always room for change. We have millions of chances to make it right.

The right time is now to make those changes and corrections. We must first look inside for the answer.

Love,

Gracie

Friends

ignorance is best described as the act of willfully disengaging in truth.
you are not ignorant because you don't know something. you can always learn or you can always reach toward that moment when you learn something new or can see something in a different light.

i have been ignorant about certain things for a long while.

my major ignorance has been in my relationships.
i have always thought my role was to make sure the other person was happy. i never thought about myself.

i did it in my intimate relationships
i did it in my personal friendships
hell i even did it in my working relationships.

what i always did was elevate the other person. i called them my husband
i called them my best friend
i called them my work friends

what i neglected to realize was that elevating a person to the monikers, i gave them power over me.

take fore instance best friend. i have many friend and it is rare that a person finds them self in my best friend category. a person who i call a best friend was put in a position where so much more is expected of them. when they succeeded i cheered through them. when they failed, i shook my head in disgust. when we argued, i took it personally.

that is not the way i treat my friends so why would i treat a best friend that way?

the solution to this problem is to not have best friends. i have many friends people who i might not talk to for months, but we are always cool with things. that is how it should be with all friends. there is no reason to be more committed to or more intimate with a friend than all the others.
the amount of respect given to a "best friend" is usually less than what is given to general friends. you look to them for so much more and they are human and should be given the same amount of breathing room as everyone else.

the best way to maintain friendships is to not give so much to one person defined as a "best friend" .
just a regular old friend with whom you share many interests. something has obviously brought friends together. should be taken as just that and not as anything so special that you single them out by placing them on a pedestal leaving them able to fall farther, hit harder, and take longer to climb back up.

g

insight

More and more i am finding it necessary to reflect on life. As i sit here under on on beautiful maple tree on my break at work, i think about how good life is and how nice it is to be able to put your feet in the grace.
Take naps when we need to. Not just taking them when we have the time. We have to make time for these things. I don't think we should work 40 hours plus on on week. I have on on friend who works three da)s on on week and goes to school the rest of the time. She may be without time, but she is working on her dream. What are many of us doing? Working to eat, to pay rent, to keep the lights on sometimes.

As i sit here under this beautiful maple tree, i am glad that i can, but sad that i can't make it last longer.

*sigh*

G

religion

just because religion is not attached, does not make it wrong.

you may have God floating around in you.
it is not necessarily something that you want to share, but you know it is in YOU.

we were taught the differences between right and wrong. all of those teachings are based in the bible. just because they are taught without the namesake God, Jesus,Christ, Lord., does not make them wrong.

granted, there is a deeper meaning and understanding when you look at it from the standpoint of what the lesson is or of the mere fact that we were loved so much that we have been given all of our chances to learn the most important lesson in life.

hell,
even E.T. the extraterrestrial said it best "Beeeeeeeeeeee Gooooooooooood!"

ya know?

g