Happy Christmahanukkwanzyuldan
Chappy Chanukah to all my Jewish readers. OK I got that from my husband who picked it up from somewhere else. There is a commercial for Virgin mobile phones on the air currently that I find both funny and sad at the same time. They are celebrating Christmahanukkwanzyuldan. Trying to be all things to all people in one commercial, which of course brings into sharp focus the amalgamation that this time of the year has become. I have many friends of various religions. I have to do a mental checklist this time of year to figure out which holiday I should wish them. We talk about the blatant commercialization of Christmas. It is nice to know that all the other religions have joined in now so we can all spend together.
Albany is finally working on the Rockefeller drug laws that have been on the books since the 70s. The rise of the use of crack cocaine in the 80s brought with it a lot of people who are only a danger to themselves going to jail for possibly the rest of their lives. It took 20 years and a lot of negotiation but the statutes are changing. I am disappointed that judges still can’t take circumstance into account when sentencing so selling 5 oz of cocaine will get you as much time as selling a couple of kilos under the revised laws too. I was reading about one man who said that he turned his life around that it was pointed out to him that yea he could earn 100,000 for one days sale of coke but then if he is arrested then he goes and sits in jail for at least 20 years doing nothing. Meanwhile if he got a job that paid say even 20,000 a year he could earn 400,000 in 20 years and have his freedom to do what he wanted to do like walk on the beach. If we could only get that idea across to more people I think it would be a good thing.
I am on an antibiotic for a sinus infection and I am really hoping that it kicks in soon. I am feeling a little more awake and I don’t want to rip my eyeballs out to relive the pressure in my head. So I consider that progress. The problem is that I need to feel better sooner since I have a number of things I want to get done before I start to travel for the holidays. Which is coming up sooner than I expected.
Thanks everyone for your good wishes on the job front. Keep those fingers crossed. I might know more next week. I am really hoping I will know a yea or nay before I have to leave. It seems to be moving forward rapidly so we’ll see what happens this time. I feel like I am auditioning again which in some ways I am.
Caroline’s play is getting more complicated. She puts on her Backpack (based on the backpack of Dora the Explorer) and pulls out the map then has some sort of adventure by following the map. She has been putting her Boots the Monkey doll in the Backpack to travel with her. We gave her some wooden puzzles for her birthday. She has been having a lot of fun taking them apart and putting them together. I also got her a toy that has various shaped blocks that go through holes in a large cube. If she gets frustrated with trying to figure out where the block goes, she opens the top of the cube and drops the block in. I gave her an old dead cell phone of mine in hopes of keeping my current one from her handling. It is a flip phone. She opens it up and talks on it. I don’t know who she is talking with but she is very determined.
We have hit the twos with a new expression. She now has learned and uses with greater frequency her scowl face. The eyebrows knit down and the lower lip goes out. She can give a stare that would peel paint when she wants to. We know very well when she is irritated with us. I am waiting to see if she has inherited her material grandmother’s cocked eyebrow move that my mother has used to great effect over the year both with her family and her students and colleagues.
I don’t wear shoes around the house for the most part. I have always been that way. So now when I put on my shoes, Caroline knows that I am going somewhere outside of the house. If I don’t put on my coat she knows it is for a short time and doesn’t give me much grief but if I put on my coat with my shoes she lets up a howl. Shoes! Shoes! Shoes! She’ll point to my feet and repeat Shoes! Then she’ll grab her own foot and say Shoes? Which translated to Am I going to? Peter put on his coat the other day to go on an errand. Caroline pulled her coat out of the closet and proceeded to put in on saying Out?Out? I had to tell her no and that she was staying here with me. I got major scowl face from her.
I am grateful to my daughter’s expanding understanding of the world around her.
For those who missed the announcement earlier pictures of Caroline on her 2nd birthday at homepage.mac.com/kathodavid.
Albany is finally working on the Rockefeller drug laws that have been on the books since the 70s. The rise of the use of crack cocaine in the 80s brought with it a lot of people who are only a danger to themselves going to jail for possibly the rest of their lives. It took 20 years and a lot of negotiation but the statutes are changing. I am disappointed that judges still can’t take circumstance into account when sentencing so selling 5 oz of cocaine will get you as much time as selling a couple of kilos under the revised laws too. I was reading about one man who said that he turned his life around that it was pointed out to him that yea he could earn 100,000 for one days sale of coke but then if he is arrested then he goes and sits in jail for at least 20 years doing nothing. Meanwhile if he got a job that paid say even 20,000 a year he could earn 400,000 in 20 years and have his freedom to do what he wanted to do like walk on the beach. If we could only get that idea across to more people I think it would be a good thing.
I am on an antibiotic for a sinus infection and I am really hoping that it kicks in soon. I am feeling a little more awake and I don’t want to rip my eyeballs out to relive the pressure in my head. So I consider that progress. The problem is that I need to feel better sooner since I have a number of things I want to get done before I start to travel for the holidays. Which is coming up sooner than I expected.
Thanks everyone for your good wishes on the job front. Keep those fingers crossed. I might know more next week. I am really hoping I will know a yea or nay before I have to leave. It seems to be moving forward rapidly so we’ll see what happens this time. I feel like I am auditioning again which in some ways I am.
Caroline’s play is getting more complicated. She puts on her Backpack (based on the backpack of Dora the Explorer) and pulls out the map then has some sort of adventure by following the map. She has been putting her Boots the Monkey doll in the Backpack to travel with her. We gave her some wooden puzzles for her birthday. She has been having a lot of fun taking them apart and putting them together. I also got her a toy that has various shaped blocks that go through holes in a large cube. If she gets frustrated with trying to figure out where the block goes, she opens the top of the cube and drops the block in. I gave her an old dead cell phone of mine in hopes of keeping my current one from her handling. It is a flip phone. She opens it up and talks on it. I don’t know who she is talking with but she is very determined.
We have hit the twos with a new expression. She now has learned and uses with greater frequency her scowl face. The eyebrows knit down and the lower lip goes out. She can give a stare that would peel paint when she wants to. We know very well when she is irritated with us. I am waiting to see if she has inherited her material grandmother’s cocked eyebrow move that my mother has used to great effect over the year both with her family and her students and colleagues.
I don’t wear shoes around the house for the most part. I have always been that way. So now when I put on my shoes, Caroline knows that I am going somewhere outside of the house. If I don’t put on my coat she knows it is for a short time and doesn’t give me much grief but if I put on my coat with my shoes she lets up a howl. Shoes! Shoes! Shoes! She’ll point to my feet and repeat Shoes! Then she’ll grab her own foot and say Shoes? Which translated to Am I going to? Peter put on his coat the other day to go on an errand. Caroline pulled her coat out of the closet and proceeded to put in on saying Out?Out? I had to tell her no and that she was staying here with me. I got major scowl face from her.
I am grateful to my daughter’s expanding understanding of the world around her.
For those who missed the announcement earlier pictures of Caroline on her 2nd birthday at homepage.mac.com/kathodavid.