Any number above zero is too high

I shouldn't like Bobbi French. I mean, the woman is living the life I want and I should be crazy jealous. Let's examine the evidence against her.

1. She's tall. (She refers to herself as a giraffe.)
2. She's thin. (Don't listen to her about this. She's thin.)
3. Her silver hair is even more gorgeous than mine ;-D AND AND! she has the bone structure to wear her hair cropped a la Jamie Curtis. Who, I might add, Bobbie resembles.
4. She's smart. As in, she's a doctor smart.
5. She's living in France with a gorgeous husband who cooks and rubs her feet. And there are no surly teenagers or cats weighing her down.

Need I go on?

But here's the thing. Because she's so damned funny and intelligent and witty and kind and interesting and humane and because she's from Newfoundland (it matters, y'all), I am forced to overlook all those superficial reasons for not liking her. I adore Bobbi French. And as if I needed another reason to adore her, there's this post which will give you some context for the video below.



Now get out there and spread this message around. This has to stop now. My kids are going to hear about this tonight when they get home and every day after. I'm going to be a cd stuck on repeat, a record with a needle stuck, a gramophone....well,  you get the idea. It's not enough for me to remind them that bullying is wrong and will not be tolerated, but they also need to spread the word among their friends and they need to shame and shun anyone who still thinks bullying is okay.

But I'll be honest with you, adults are a big part of the problem. The high school where Sophie will attend won't even allow a Gay/Straight Alliance to form. That's an adult problem, not a bullying problem.

I'm pledging here and now to call this bullshit out wherever I see it. I hope you will, too.

Black Magpie Theory: Better

Do you know what a drum line sounds like at 5:30 a.m.?

I do.

So I survived the Friday night Lock-In at Sophie's middle school.  To be  honest with you, except for the mind-numbing effects of being awake for more than 24 hours straight, it wasn't bad.  I spent a lot of time just standing around making sure that the kids didn't get hurt.  I must hand it to the organizers of the event.  They did a great job and made the volunteer role pretty dang easy.  The event had a schedule including free play time, contests, games, lots of food and a talent show.  The thing flowed.

Sophie had a blast.  I kept my distance, letting her come to me if she needed something. It was kind of nice to see her in that new setting, running coltishly with her friends from one thing to the next.  They're all limbs at this  stage, aren't they?

During the evening, I did have the opportunity to do something specific.  You can read more about it here.

So I guess I take it back, Middle Schoolers.  You weren't so bad.  You weren't bad at all.  I witnessed genuine kindness passing between them.  Taking turns, helping each other out, not Eddie Haskell polite, but polite enough.  I held plenty of eyeglasses for kids who were doing something physical and every single one of them thanked me.

The downside is that my tail is still dragging a bit.  Instead of sleeping all day Saturday, I tried to stay on a more normal schedule.  I slept some, but my sleep deficit remains significant.  I had to drive to town to run some errands and had one of the moments where you think "Man, I don't remember driving that last stretch of road...."

Lack of sleep turned out to be a small price to pay to get back some of my hope for the future, though. I'm glad I volunteered.

How was your weekend?