A summary of the last few weeks
Sick Cat. Sasha was in and out of the vet for about a week. He began vomiting, and I don't know why. So, there were blood tests and medicine. Nothing appeared to be wrong according to the blood tests. His kidney numbers had increased from a month ago (taken during his checkup), but that could've been because of the excessive vomiting. Did a urine test the next day. No indication of renal failure, but there was blood in his urine. He seems to be doing okay when he began vomiting again a week later. Took him back in. We tried a different medicine. Then he began to hide and have, shall we say, littler box issues. Not good. During this time the vet I normally take him to was out with the flu, but she was back, and she wanted to see him and do some xrays to check for kidney stones or something else. Nothing was wrong other than some arthritis. For now he's on antibiotics because we are treating it as an infection of unknown origins.
Snow. We had some snow. We didn't have a lot where I live, but I am right along the water. Other areas farther inland had anywhere from eight to eighteen inches. But then we got the cold Canadian winds. See, we get the kind of snow that the Midwest gets in April. Normal Midwest snow is that light fluffy stuff, but as temps go up, the snow gets heavy and sloppy. That's what we get. And then we get these crazy winds out of the Fraser River Valley in Canada. The valley serves as a funnel for all these arctic winds and they come barreling out of the north and freeze the sloppy wet snow into a solid chunk of ice. And since no one, and I mean NO ONE, in this town shovels their sidewalks, trying to get anywhere, whether in a car or on foot, becomes very dangerous. And the wind is cold. Honestly, I can handle the cold. I mean, yeah, it's cold, but I can deal with it. Did they cancel classes or close the university? Of course not. But they did issue a warning to be careful and to remind us to take off our traction footwear when entering a building because that could be dangerous. Bite me.
Driving in the snow. You know, I grew up driving in the snow. I didn't like it, but it was just something you did. As I got older, I developed more anxieties about driving in the snow. This is what I learned: Front wheel drive will get you most places you need to be. As long as you are careful and take it slow ad don't make any sudden movements (or stop while going up a hill) you'll probably be okay. But it's been seven years since I've had to regularly drive in snow. And I lived in a very flat place. Now I don't. And I had to pick up some friends at the train station last weekend. In the snow. I live on a hill. And the driveway is very steep with a slight curve. I was worried. Did I make it? Yup. I was picking up someone who is not familiar with snow, and every time there was a slight skid, I could hear her suck in her breath. Each time I told her we were fine, because we were. We got a little hung up at the very top of the very steep driveway, but we kept moving... slowly. Did let out a "woo-hoo" after I parked my car? Hell, yes. I was very proud of myself.
Packers. The Packers lost to the Giants in Lambeau. Honestly, I wasn't that upset. They played so poorly they deserved to lose that game. They looked like a team that hadn't played in weeks. And in some ways they hadn't. They were the healthiest they had been in weeks, but that means they had people playing who hadn't played since mid-season. Rodgers didn't play during the last game of the regular season and with the first week bye, he hadn't played in three weeks. This is the way I see it: I know the goal is to win the Super Bowl, but they had a great season and the kept me more than entertained during the last four months. For that I thank them. Now it's time to make plans for next season.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Dance-a-Day
I love this project, this Dance-a-Day project. This is being done by the same couple doing the Will Travel for Vegan Food project (which I also love).
What is Dance-a-Day? It's summed up on their YouTube Channel:
"I love to dance - and I enjoy pushing my comfort zone limits - so I chose to "Dance[like no one's watching]-a-day." Self-imposed rules: 1) must dance in public place, 2) one take/no edits 3) must publish/share on YouTube. Even if it's terrible."
What is Dance-a-Day? It's summed up on their YouTube Channel:
"I love to dance - and I enjoy pushing my comfort zone limits - so I chose to "Dance[like no one's watching]-a-day." Self-imposed rules: 1) must dance in public place, 2) one take/no edits 3) must publish/share on YouTube. Even if it's terrible."
Dancing in Whole Foods in Palatine, Illinois to the Ting Tings...
Monday, January 2, 2012
Iowa Nice: We're not all fucking hillbillies
The article Observations of 20 Years of Life in Iowa is the talk of Iowa right now. Well, it is the talk right behind the caucuses. Stephen Bloom is a professor at the University of Iowa and the author of Postville, a book I have wanted to read for some time. This article is full of over generalizations and, well, bullshit... and some truth.
Meat packing plants have changed the face of Iowa for good and for bad. Young people have been leaving Iowa for years. Meth is an issue and has been for years. But to paint Iowa and Iowans with such broad strokes is shortsided. And, personally, I always found Iowa's "political schizophrenia" interesting and the reason the state is important both as the state where the caucus/primary season starts but also as a swing state--and it is a swing state. Let's look at some of the politicians who represent Iowa in Washington, DC: Steve King, a right-wing, cringeworthy nutjob, and then there is Charles Grassley, whose record makes me role my eye so hard it hurts. But then there is Tom Harkin, who along with the late Paul Wellstone and Russ Feingold made up the triumvirate of midwestern farm-labor progressivism that made me proud to be a Midwesterner. Sadly, Harkin is the last of the three to be in office.
And some of the things he mentions as negative, well, I find endearing. A bag is a sack. I drank pop until I went to college and began drinking soda. I do call my 13-year old nephew "Bud" (and so does my brother). I never belonged to a church or went to church regularly, but it is a social outlet. (And to add to that, I never had anyone stop me in Hy-Vee to talk about religion. Ever. Religion was not discussed in public. Ever.) And you always go to the back door of a house (and the back door is usually on the side of the house, right next to the driveway). Why? Because if someone knocks on the front door, they are either trying to sell you something or they were pedaling a religion.
And let me add to the list: The small-town community that Bloom badmouths is where people will drop everything to help a neighbor. I spent my life split between a college town and one of those small rural towns Bloom looks down on. That small town has its problems, but the one thing that small town--and all small towns have--is an amazing sense of community and support. This is the community that will bring in the harvest of a farmer who is ill (and those who step up to help will do this on top of the work they put in on their own farms). Every small town has That Guy you can always go to when you need something, no questions asked. My dad was That Guy. There are 1500 people in his town and they estimated there were 2000 at his visitation. There were close to 400 at his funeral. A good portion of the downtown closed up shop during his funeral by putting up signs in their windows that simply said: "At [My last name] Funeral." That kind of community is the norm in Iowa. I don't think that is a bad thing.
So let me say this: Professor Bloom, get off your fucking high horse and realize you are working at a top-notch university in a town that many people hold dear. You are in the same town as one of the top medical research facilities in the country. And your students are from a state with one of the best educational systems in the country. You touched on some things about Iowa that are worth discussion, but you buried them in over-generalizations and stereotypes. You claim that this is journalism. I call it lazy.
In the end, it obvious, Bloom, that you have nothing but contempt for the state of Iowa, your students, and the university where you work. You are an embarrassment.
In short: Fuck you.
I think this video sums up my feelings nicely:
Kyle Munson, Iowa Columnist at the Des Moines Register put together a list of rebuttals that are well worth a read. And... Iowa even made CNN.
Meat packing plants have changed the face of Iowa for good and for bad. Young people have been leaving Iowa for years. Meth is an issue and has been for years. But to paint Iowa and Iowans with such broad strokes is shortsided. And, personally, I always found Iowa's "political schizophrenia" interesting and the reason the state is important both as the state where the caucus/primary season starts but also as a swing state--and it is a swing state. Let's look at some of the politicians who represent Iowa in Washington, DC: Steve King, a right-wing, cringeworthy nutjob, and then there is Charles Grassley, whose record makes me role my eye so hard it hurts. But then there is Tom Harkin, who along with the late Paul Wellstone and Russ Feingold made up the triumvirate of midwestern farm-labor progressivism that made me proud to be a Midwesterner. Sadly, Harkin is the last of the three to be in office.
And some of the things he mentions as negative, well, I find endearing. A bag is a sack. I drank pop until I went to college and began drinking soda. I do call my 13-year old nephew "Bud" (and so does my brother). I never belonged to a church or went to church regularly, but it is a social outlet. (And to add to that, I never had anyone stop me in Hy-Vee to talk about religion. Ever. Religion was not discussed in public. Ever.) And you always go to the back door of a house (and the back door is usually on the side of the house, right next to the driveway). Why? Because if someone knocks on the front door, they are either trying to sell you something or they were pedaling a religion.
And let me add to the list: The small-town community that Bloom badmouths is where people will drop everything to help a neighbor. I spent my life split between a college town and one of those small rural towns Bloom looks down on. That small town has its problems, but the one thing that small town--and all small towns have--is an amazing sense of community and support. This is the community that will bring in the harvest of a farmer who is ill (and those who step up to help will do this on top of the work they put in on their own farms). Every small town has That Guy you can always go to when you need something, no questions asked. My dad was That Guy. There are 1500 people in his town and they estimated there were 2000 at his visitation. There were close to 400 at his funeral. A good portion of the downtown closed up shop during his funeral by putting up signs in their windows that simply said: "At [My last name] Funeral." That kind of community is the norm in Iowa. I don't think that is a bad thing.
So let me say this: Professor Bloom, get off your fucking high horse and realize you are working at a top-notch university in a town that many people hold dear. You are in the same town as one of the top medical research facilities in the country. And your students are from a state with one of the best educational systems in the country. You touched on some things about Iowa that are worth discussion, but you buried them in over-generalizations and stereotypes. You claim that this is journalism. I call it lazy.
In the end, it obvious, Bloom, that you have nothing but contempt for the state of Iowa, your students, and the university where you work. You are an embarrassment.
In short: Fuck you.
I think this video sums up my feelings nicely:
Kyle Munson, Iowa Columnist at the Des Moines Register put together a list of rebuttals that are well worth a read. And... Iowa even made CNN.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Who is this?
My sister-in-law has pictures of my brother and I in their dining room, but, strangely enough, she had several of me from elementary school. I mean, it's not strange that they had pictures of me but why school pictures of me and not my brother.
My family has this thing with school pictures: We buy one of those double-sided book-style picture frames. In the left frame you have last year's picture with the current picture in the right frame. And all previous pictures are placed beneath the pictures being displayed. (Do other people do this? This is what my dad's mom did, and it's what I do.) I took the back off the right frame and found another picture. I held it up to my brother and asked, "Who is this?" My brother looked at me like I was an idiot.
"No, seriously. Who is this?," I asked. Still silence.
"Wait, is this me? This isn't me. I didn't have buck teeth. And look how blond this person is. Oh, wait.... Holy shit, I remember that shirt. Oh my god, this is me. This looks nothing like me."
My brother: silence.
But then I pulled out the other picture and saw this on the back:
To: Dad (Bruce)
My name
6th grade
11 years old
I realized that these were from the box of pictures I took from my dad's basement when I went through it a few months after he died. I knew I had left a box of stuff at my brother's house before I drove back to Mississippi. This had to've been where the pictures came from. It also helped me figure out the picture on the left was from 6th grade, the one on the right was 7th, and the one I didn't recognize was 5th grade.
I explained this all to my brother and he said, "Bruce? What? Just in case someone confused him with some other dad?"
Me: "Bite me, asshole. I'm taking these home with me."
Feel the love. (See next post about how much I do actually like my brother.)
My family has this thing with school pictures: We buy one of those double-sided book-style picture frames. In the left frame you have last year's picture with the current picture in the right frame. And all previous pictures are placed beneath the pictures being displayed. (Do other people do this? This is what my dad's mom did, and it's what I do.) I took the back off the right frame and found another picture. I held it up to my brother and asked, "Who is this?" My brother looked at me like I was an idiot.
"No, seriously. Who is this?," I asked. Still silence.
"Wait, is this me? This isn't me. I didn't have buck teeth. And look how blond this person is. Oh, wait.... Holy shit, I remember that shirt. Oh my god, this is me. This looks nothing like me."
My brother: silence.
But then I pulled out the other picture and saw this on the back:
To: Dad (Bruce)
My name
6th grade
11 years old
I realized that these were from the box of pictures I took from my dad's basement when I went through it a few months after he died. I knew I had left a box of stuff at my brother's house before I drove back to Mississippi. This had to've been where the pictures came from. It also helped me figure out the picture on the left was from 6th grade, the one on the right was 7th, and the one I didn't recognize was 5th grade.
I explained this all to my brother and he said, "Bruce? What? Just in case someone confused him with some other dad?"
Me: "Bite me, asshole. I'm taking these home with me."
Feel the love. (See next post about how much I do actually like my brother.)
My Brother
I really like my brother. I didn't always. I didn't have any real reason to dislike him, I just did. I blame it on being a teenager and they fact that he was my older brother.
We grew apart while in college Again, not because of any thing or whatever, we just didn't see each other very often. I saw him twice a year when I went home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And by the time I was in my latter half of my undergraduate degree, I would go home for roughly three days: December 24, 25, and 26. My mom had moved away from my hometown and lived somewhere where I didn't know anybody. All my friends had moved on--some were in college and some just took off. My dad lived in the small town where my whole family was from but spending more than a day with my dad was dangerous for everyone's health. Plus, I'd gotten to the point where my college friends were my family. So I'd go home for Christmas Eve and Christmas day and then head back to school where everyone else I knew was also getting the hell away from their families, too. We'd spend the rest of Winter Break playing Hearts (seriously), watching stupid TV, and drinking beer. It was awesome.
Anyway, my brother. After I graduated we saw each other more. Then he began to date his now-wife. She was tight with her siblings and didn't understand why my brother wasn't with his. And then she began inviting me down for weekends. And holidays. And Super Bowl Sundays. At one point, when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, my brother told me I could come live in his basement. I could live rent free, and he'd pay for food if I did the dishes and helped around the house. I thought about it and then decided against it.
So, now I consider my brother and I pretty tight. He's one of the calming factors in my life. He always has been. He would often referee between my dad and I, and when he'd get mad at me about something, I knew I had gone too far--it takes a lot to push him too far. He's still the calming factor with my sister-in-law and my nieces and nephews. When he gets mad, the kids know they've pushed it too far.
We haven't had our normal brother-sister bonding time the last few years (picking up shit that my SiL forgot at 3:00 on Christmas Eve), but we try to make up for it in other ways. This year he was in Wisconsin for work for part of the time I was in Iowa. Despite only having a couple of days together, we played Wii, talked football, drank beer, and discussed Wisconsin--all in about six hours.
Wii
We boxed. The kids chose sides and became cheerleaders. I got my ass kicked. Then we played golf. Golf doesn't inspire small children cheering. The kids got bored, but I kicked his ass.
Football
He's a Vikings fan, I'm a Packers fan. He's an Iowa State fan, I'm a fairweather Iowa Hawkeyes fan and fairly devoted Wisconsin Badgers fan. We talked about the Big 12 and the Big 10, mainly focusing on the defections of Missouri (Mizzou) from the Big 12 to the SEC and Nebraska from the Big 12 to the Big 10.
What we decided about football:
Mizzou: They have no clue what they are getting into by joining the SEC. They better get themselves some sort of chant, show their students how to dress in cocktail dresses and seersucker pants, and learn to drink... and to play football, because they are going to get their asses kicked. I also explained the SEC chants, but all I knew were Hotty Toddy, Mississippi State's Woof-woof and cowbell (you know, for the simple folk), and part of Rammer Yammer ('Bama).
Nebraska: One of my top football memories of this season was UW's defeat of Nebraska. My brother agreed because we both hate Nebraska. What we agreed on: They are not up to par with the academics of the Big 10 schools--they're not even close. They haven't been a big football school for a long time despite their claim that playing in the same conference as Texas made them a football superpower. Sure, you play UT, but you are also in the same conference as Kansas State and Iowa State. Big Deal. Welcome to the Big 10. You suck.
Beer
He is not a big fan of New Glarus, I am. Or at least I am of Spotted Cow. He likes their IPA, I don't. But having New Glarus on tap is a requirement for all Wisconsin bars. I need to bump up my beer drinking. I had a headache due to weather (it passed, eventually). When I told him that was why I was nursing the beer he gave me he said, "You're gonna have to power through that [headache] if you want to become a professional [beer drinker]." I powered through, but I am pretty sure I am still an amateur compared to him.
Wisconsin
My brother loves supper clubs and Wisconsin is crazy with supper clubs. He went to this one outside of Prairie du Chien while he was up there for work. Someone had recommended it but with the caveat that it was a little uppity and fancy. As my brother said: "It would've been uppity if it were still 1975, which is when they last decorated." Coming from my brother, that was not an insult. He went on to describe the relish "tray" and iceberg lettuce salads served in fake wooden bowls and the perfectly cooked medium-rare steak and how "you people [me, since I claim Wisconsin as home] know what you're doing." In the end he described it this way: "There was a relish tray, iceberg lettuce, New Glarus on tap, and a slab of meat on a plate." I can't think of a better way to describe Wisconsin.
All in all, it was a good trip back to Iowa. It was low-key. There was no travel drama. There weren't any big reunions. I spent several days in Iowa City so I could feel a little more at home and eat at the spectacular Red Avocado.
But at the end of it, I was happy to come home.
We grew apart while in college Again, not because of any thing or whatever, we just didn't see each other very often. I saw him twice a year when I went home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And by the time I was in my latter half of my undergraduate degree, I would go home for roughly three days: December 24, 25, and 26. My mom had moved away from my hometown and lived somewhere where I didn't know anybody. All my friends had moved on--some were in college and some just took off. My dad lived in the small town where my whole family was from but spending more than a day with my dad was dangerous for everyone's health. Plus, I'd gotten to the point where my college friends were my family. So I'd go home for Christmas Eve and Christmas day and then head back to school where everyone else I knew was also getting the hell away from their families, too. We'd spend the rest of Winter Break playing Hearts (seriously), watching stupid TV, and drinking beer. It was awesome.
Anyway, my brother. After I graduated we saw each other more. Then he began to date his now-wife. She was tight with her siblings and didn't understand why my brother wasn't with his. And then she began inviting me down for weekends. And holidays. And Super Bowl Sundays. At one point, when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, my brother told me I could come live in his basement. I could live rent free, and he'd pay for food if I did the dishes and helped around the house. I thought about it and then decided against it.
So, now I consider my brother and I pretty tight. He's one of the calming factors in my life. He always has been. He would often referee between my dad and I, and when he'd get mad at me about something, I knew I had gone too far--it takes a lot to push him too far. He's still the calming factor with my sister-in-law and my nieces and nephews. When he gets mad, the kids know they've pushed it too far.
We haven't had our normal brother-sister bonding time the last few years (picking up shit that my SiL forgot at 3:00 on Christmas Eve), but we try to make up for it in other ways. This year he was in Wisconsin for work for part of the time I was in Iowa. Despite only having a couple of days together, we played Wii, talked football, drank beer, and discussed Wisconsin--all in about six hours.
Wii
We boxed. The kids chose sides and became cheerleaders. I got my ass kicked. Then we played golf. Golf doesn't inspire small children cheering. The kids got bored, but I kicked his ass.
Football
He's a Vikings fan, I'm a Packers fan. He's an Iowa State fan, I'm a fairweather Iowa Hawkeyes fan and fairly devoted Wisconsin Badgers fan. We talked about the Big 12 and the Big 10, mainly focusing on the defections of Missouri (Mizzou) from the Big 12 to the SEC and Nebraska from the Big 12 to the Big 10.
What we decided about football:
Mizzou: They have no clue what they are getting into by joining the SEC. They better get themselves some sort of chant, show their students how to dress in cocktail dresses and seersucker pants, and learn to drink... and to play football, because they are going to get their asses kicked. I also explained the SEC chants, but all I knew were Hotty Toddy, Mississippi State's Woof-woof and cowbell (you know, for the simple folk), and part of Rammer Yammer ('Bama).
Nebraska: One of my top football memories of this season was UW's defeat of Nebraska. My brother agreed because we both hate Nebraska. What we agreed on: They are not up to par with the academics of the Big 10 schools--they're not even close. They haven't been a big football school for a long time despite their claim that playing in the same conference as Texas made them a football superpower. Sure, you play UT, but you are also in the same conference as Kansas State and Iowa State. Big Deal. Welcome to the Big 10. You suck.
Beer
He is not a big fan of New Glarus, I am. Or at least I am of Spotted Cow. He likes their IPA, I don't. But having New Glarus on tap is a requirement for all Wisconsin bars. I need to bump up my beer drinking. I had a headache due to weather (it passed, eventually). When I told him that was why I was nursing the beer he gave me he said, "You're gonna have to power through that [headache] if you want to become a professional [beer drinker]." I powered through, but I am pretty sure I am still an amateur compared to him.
Wisconsin
My brother loves supper clubs and Wisconsin is crazy with supper clubs. He went to this one outside of Prairie du Chien while he was up there for work. Someone had recommended it but with the caveat that it was a little uppity and fancy. As my brother said: "It would've been uppity if it were still 1975, which is when they last decorated." Coming from my brother, that was not an insult. He went on to describe the relish "tray" and iceberg lettuce salads served in fake wooden bowls and the perfectly cooked medium-rare steak and how "you people [me, since I claim Wisconsin as home] know what you're doing." In the end he described it this way: "There was a relish tray, iceberg lettuce, New Glarus on tap, and a slab of meat on a plate." I can't think of a better way to describe Wisconsin.
All in all, it was a good trip back to Iowa. It was low-key. There was no travel drama. There weren't any big reunions. I spent several days in Iowa City so I could feel a little more at home and eat at the spectacular Red Avocado.
But at the end of it, I was happy to come home.
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