Truth be known, I could do without Jimmy Neutron. I patiently watch that show with Mathias (and sometimes Piper), however, for two reasons: Goddard, who is Jimmy's beloved dog and Sheen, who is one of his sidekick-bestpal thingies.
Sheen is four things I love in a man...he is wildly spastic, sort of obsessive, passionately devoted and he's the owner of some poofy black hair. I have been searching for a t-shirt with him on it for nigh on four years now. Sadly, this mission has gone unfulfilled.
During one of my more recent bouts of ferocious searching, I found out Sheen's last name. It's Estevez. Then I had a stroke from laughing so hard because...Sheen Estevez? Pure brilliance. Sheen Estevez, my people!
The one where I bitch about the miscasting of Renee once again.
I don't know...correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall that the THE INIMITABLE, LEGENDARY Janis Joplin ever wrote a song of epic, hair-tearing proportions about some spotty skin.
Media: I know that I could never, ever in a million years expect that you will stop saying stupid things. Still, I'm compelled to remind you that it's bad enough that Hollywood has cast Zellweger. Stop reaching far into your asses in order to correlate her somehow, anyhow to Janis. Just shut the fuck up about it. Let's all move on.
to rummage around and ended up wiggling into one of Scout's old Hallerweenie costumes. It would be baffling as to how he managed it if he weren't such a skinny kid. As it was, it was downright roomy, if a little short. When he emerged into the living room from the family room, his sisters were shaken from their VH1-induced (see television in above pic, bleck) reverie and exploded into giggles that shook several square blocks. Mathias, ever the ham, jumped and spun and did his best Lord Of The Dance moves for them. The more they hooted, the more enthused and exuberant he became. He did this huge number that ended up with him on one knee, arms thrown wide, shouting "TA-DAAAAAAAA!"
We all know that girls are instinctively mean, so it should come as no surprise to you that before long, Piper challenged him to go out onto the front lawn, wait for passers-by (in the form of cars, most especially) and run around the yard while waving like a lunatic at them. The exchange went something like this:
PIPER: Whaddaya say?
MATHIAS: No way.
SCOUT: Come ONNNNN, that would be so cool.
PIPER: I'll give you a dollar.*
MATHIAS: Okay.
Mathias is a non-conformist, but capitalism always wins out, as there are Galactic Heroes available for purchase that he does not yet own.
Our street is rather quiet and he got tired of standing in the yard waiting, so the girls struck a compromise with him whereby he could stand at the front window watching and then run out the door (directly to the right of the windows pictured above) to visually assault any passing traffic. He 'brightened up the day' of several motorists before I finally put a stop to all the ruckus and bade him to molt his exofur. Before he did that, though, he went to collect from Scout and Piper.
He came back unhappy. Seems he misunderstood the bargain struck; Piper said one dollar and when Scout chimed in he assumed she would pony up, as well. Thus, behold the very face of frustrated disappointment, Loyal and Wonderful Muffinasses:
:: mathias gypped, september '05 ::
*she has been working since the end of July and is flamboyant with her wealth, as the nouveau riche tend to be
First things first: Katrina Kids Relief has its own site and a PayPal account attached to the church. Those of you waiting until that happened, you may now go forth linking and donating! Everyone who's linked to date: Thanks, and can I now trouble you to redirect your links over there?
Second things second: I spent a chunk of Saturday evening and yesterday reading ugly, ugly things about ay) me personally and bee) the KKR project. The people involved were obviouslybig doody-covered assplunderers looking for something/someone to target and had little to no social skills or reading comprehension capabilities whatsoever obviously not read the entry on my site about the project; they'd found a blurb elsewhere and ran with it, no background info needed, champ!
"How do I handle this?" says I, to myself. Funny how that got answered.
I am a person with a fierce, fierce temper. My sense of rage is so finely honed and so wonderfully accurate when I aim it at someone that you'd think the sucker was laser sighted. I peel back scalps, people, and I laugh like a crazyperson while I do it. Then I holler "Who's NEXT??"
Every now and again somebody (or a silly group of somebodies, as was the case here) will step all over themselves to bait me, not really realizing the type of person that they are dealing with. When I am on your side, then you can smile ear to ear, because I am loyal to a fault and tenacious in the defense of those to whom I take a shine. When you are on the other side (whatever that side may be), however, you are well and truly fucked....especially if you come out swinging. I'm pretty much a live and let live kinda gal. You poke me, and I may just stir a bit. Then again, I may leap with claws and fangs bared and geez-oh-Pete you better be wearing cast iron panties because I'm gonna grab you by the ass-end and shake once or ten times.
So I was faced with a choice: I could craft a witty rejoinder that obliterates the offending party because I have three brain cells and they haven't just recently migrated in from my butt (as seems to be the case with the charming folk I am speaking of), or I could make my genteel Southern Momma proud by smiling and nodding and continuing to serve the actual guests rather than the spiteful party crashers that blundered in, picking their scabs and farting noisily. The latter is because, dears, it is a well-known fact that you can always whip out the shotgun after matters at hand have been attended to. Plus, certain finger foods should be served fresh or not at all.
Anyway, I chose to do the former rather than the latter because right now I am about doing what's right, not being right and any energies scattered toward the naysayers is energy that is being pulled away from KKR, which is taking up a lot of that aformentioned energy. Plus, as my pal and interwebnet legal counsel Delmer Skeets McGee is wont to remind me, arguing on the internet is futile: Even if you win, you still look like a big ole boob. Everyone knows that Cyberia exists for looking at boobs, rather than behaving like a boob. Even the people that pretend like it's for other things know that!
So back to how that got answered. I was sitting on the loveseat next to my dear Maxim, telling him about my day and explaining how I'd been called everything but a white woman by some people snuggled comfortably behind their monitors. Piper, who doubles as our eldest daughter and our first foster child (and maybe adoptee! but I digress and there will be more on that later), had wandered in during this conversation and was patiently waiting to ask her dad something while I was telling him these things.
She grew red-faced and angry, her jaw dropping with incredulity.
"I CANNOT BE!LIEVE! SOMEONE IS GIVING YOU CRAP FOR WANTING TO GIVE TOYS TO LITTLE KIDS.
"If I lost BJ, I'd bawl like a baby, and I'm nearly sixteen! He's been everywhere with me!"
That cinched it. No more energy expended on the baddies, because Piper reminded me of how special her token bear is to her as he was with her during the difficult transitions in her life and there are a mess of kids out there who no longer have their 'special things'.
I intend to replace them. How about you help get that done? We'll start with a batch of one-hundred and fifty children twenty minutes from here and work our way outward from there, okay?
pee ess...A BUS! Someone stepped up and offered their bus for transport so that we don't have to take the three vans. A BUS, WOOOO!
Some people have inquired as to purchasing gift cards themselves and sending them along. Presently I am working on a matching deal (or a percentage deal, I'll take whatever we can get) with KB so that everyone's donation goes farther. I'll keep you all posted on this, and if it doesn't work out, then I'll be more than delighted for you to purchase cards yourself and get them posted to me.
Yes, Virginia, there IS a buzzing behind the scenes.
I've nearly got the Katrina Kids Relief site ready to unveil. Setting up the church-based PayPal account now...thank you for your patience if you're waiting on that in order to donate! To those of you that have donated in the interim, I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to you, as well. (drumroll, please) At present, the fund is up to
$ 2,071.01
I just want to say to Ms. Georgia "Quiltrat" that you adding the .01 to the end of your donation made my day and quite cracked me up this morning.
Thanks for the links, you bloggery people! Keep up the good work. There is good stuff going on all over Cyberia. If you can't get behind what I'm doing, then go wandering around and you'll fall over something that appeals to you and your wallet.
I must say, I'm tired. Yes, tired. Tired and hungry. I believe I'll make myself a turkey sandwich and flex my dialing finger, which was apparently woefully underworked up until now.
My six-year-old son is on the sofa shoutsinging the lyrics to the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song. There are strange moments of heartbreak in daily living. I've been trying to detach myself emotionally from details of Katrina, so that I might be effective in doing something proactive to alleviate the suffering of its victims.
But every now and again, there is this moment when my kids make me laugh or one of them approaches me with a hug and I'm sharply reminded of all those babies (I am a Southern Momma, so everyone under the age of eighteen are 'babies', natch) who are not just hugging their parents, but clinging to them for dear life. I can't escape the thought that there is no laughter six hours to the south of me; in some cases, they are closer than even that.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you that have taken the time to contact me, to hit the donation button, that have pimped this cause. There are links showing up in places I never would have dreamed of two days ago. Right on!
Today is a very busy day here; standing plans have all five children going in different directions and Maxim and me playing at/attending a wedding. I say this so that you will all know I'm not asleep at the wheel. I'm working on getting the other PayPal account set up...those of you waiting on that, thank you for your patience, and please keep checking in! I'm also still looking for a designer to crank out a couple of buttons and maybe a .pdf flyer or something. All you pixel-pushers out there: You hear that? I plan to move this effort over to another site really, really soon.
Twenty-four hours into this thing and we are already around half way to the initial goal of 3K. Man, it would be the most awesome thing if this project were to gather steam and become something I'd never imagined! We can help displaced children that are ending up in small communities ALL OVER the U.S.; that would be FABULOUS.
So pony up some change, and if you can't bring yourself to do that, throw out a link, e-mail your friends and family, whatever you can do to lend a hand. Thanks so very much.
The link was barely up when a lovely gentleman from good ole Emm-Ay hit it. Along with his donation, he sent an e-mail which said, in part,
"Gave money to Red Cross of course, but it feels really good to be able to give to you and know you will do something directly -- so you are my hands down there. I trust you can give some warm hugs from me."
~Franklin, father of two (and someone I've deemed a Pretty Damn Fine Fella)
Have I mentioned how very much I love people from Massachusetts?
Okay, I have enough ducks in a row to be able to post something and open up the coffers.
Ever since this whole Katrina business started, I've tried to find a way that I can assist those in need. I knew that whatever I was called to do, it would probably involve children. Most all of my life, I've been a child advocate in one fashion or another. The best and most accurate term I have to sum up kids with is 'neato'; kids are neato, no two ways about it.
Children and their well-being, in a nutshell, are my passion.
As far as my role in helping victims of Hurricane Katrina, I wanted it to be very much hands-on. Red Cross does a beautiful job; I have even been on the receiving end of their aid in the past. I know lots of people have already given funds to them to help meet immediate needs of those people who were devastated. Food, shelter and clothing are what we view as most pressing in times like these.
To be quite frank, I'm extremely worried about the psychological impact this will have on so many families, and most especially their children. I am hearing stories over and over of people arriving at gas stations, shelters, retail stores, bearing up children who are wearing pajamas and slippers and nothing more. There is a system put into place to clothe and feed these kids and families, and it's been getting done quite effectively and well in these parts. So that's taken care of, amen and pass the peaches. School enrollments, as well, are going quickly and smoothly.
Right now there are refugees in Birmingham, just south of me by an hour or so. They are being housed at shelters, churches and the Convention Center. I initially moved to help them, but all calls were met with a statement along the lines of, "Got it covered at this time." Even sideline needs, like things for children, are being addressed well and thoroughly there thus far.
Via some of my local calling, I got word of people in Gadsden, just twenty minutes to the southeast of me. Turns out that there are actually more people in Gadsden at THEIR convention center then there are at the Birmingham location. At this writing, there are a little over six-hundred refugees, one-hundred fifty of which are children. I spoke to Lisa Rosser, Gadsden's City Finance Director, a little over an hour ago. She was formal (but congenial) at first, and as I was giving her my background in Children's Advocacy, she softened up a little bit and became more anecdotal. "It is," she said to me, "so very overwhelming and unbelievable."
When I sailed my idea past her, she pronounced it "GREAT!" because "...basic needs are being met." I'm hoping you will all feel the same.
What I want to address is a purely psychological need, a comfort need. I want to put some toys in the hands of kids that don't have anything to their names. I know, as a parent, if I have five bucks in my pocket, I will spend it on my children ninety-five point nine percent of the time before I spend it on myself. Just about every parent does that. It hurts when our children have to do without. It's distressing.
There are one-hundred fifty children down the road from me with NOTHING. There are likely, by all accounts, more coming up from down south. I plan on going to the local KBtoys and purchasing a veritable assload of twenty-dollar gift cards. I want to supply each child sitting in that convention hall a gift card. Then I want to load them and their parents up and take them shopping so that they can purchase whatever their heart desires for them to clench in their chubby little fists. I've already collected six-hundred dollars locally with just a few phone calls. I've lined up transportation so that I can take six to eight families at one time to shop.
The benefit of all this is threefold: Some of the Katrina Kids will have something to hang onto physically and anchor them, their parents will not be hard-pressed to spend funds that could go elsewhere, and maybe their children will be occupied/distracted enough with their toy(s) to give mom and/or dad a wee bit of a break.
Let's call this Katrina Kids Relief. If there is anyone who reads this and wants to pull a logo button out from their magical digital hats, I'd sure appreciate it, as I am a technotard of the highest order. If things get big enough (and they CAN, if you link and write and spread the word!), I'll maybe set up a seperate site and think of branching off into other areas of Katrina Kids' needs.
Please make your interest known in comments or e-mail. The addy is hotlinked to my name below this post. Bless all of you, and thank you in advance for your prayers, your links and your monetary donations.
VERY IMPORTANT SOMETHING THAT I NEGLECTED TO INCLUDE: If you so desire, I will be providing receipts for tax purposes. All non-local monies, though PayPalled into my account, are being funneled through my church. If you would prefer instead to make a check directly out to my church (or does PayPal allow non-registered parties to recieve funds? I don't remember), please don't hesitate to let me know. No harm, no foul, and no offense taken. Peace.
UPDATE, 11-ish CST: Holy, holy mother of Pete! Day one and donations are just about eleven hundred dollars. Can I just say WOO! one good time?
I'm working on getting a blog site up for this project, and my pastor and I will get together tomorrow to set up a PayPal account with the church's name on it. For those of you that either know me or are comfortable doing so, I'll go ahead and take PayPal donations through my account until the other account is up and running (see button at the close of this update). PLEASE NOTE: If you want a separate receipt from the church (lovely and nondenominational, in case you wondered), PLEASE NOTE THAT WITH YOUR DONATION PAYMENT.
Thanks to my regular readers for support on this project. It is growing quickly, and we may soon be able to do the same thing in nearby communities. One more WOO! for the road.
Remember, if you'd rather mail a check or money order, you may do so. Just drop me a comment or an email.
Dust off your PayPal accounts, dear Muffinasses....I've something in the works. More on this tomorrow.
I've exhausted myself with worry and upset. I'm going to hit myself repeatedly with a hammer until I'm unconscious.
Remember, the HurricAid site is doing an excellent job of compiling resources and links. From volunteer/host housing to pet rescue to insurance claims and you name it, they're actively disseminating information and are making fine work of it. They are providing one hell of a service in an awful time.
pee ess...Mother called me from the middle of Mississippi a handful of hours ago; "ASSUME," she shouted at me, "THAT NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS. PHONE SERVICE IS GETTING SKETCHY AND WE WILL CALL AS SOON AS WE CAN PICK UP A SIGNAL ON THE RETURN TRIP." Which, by her estimation, will be sometime tomorrow afternoon. They do not want to be a drain on the resources they are delivering.
Thanks for the e-mail and calls, you kooky kids. Blessings on you.
One thing I've been hesitant to mention is that I have a sister down in the thick of all this mess. She is a nurse and was working her regular shift in southern Mississippi when everything started. They locked down the hospital, and she watched as windows exploded one by one. Since then, she has been busy caring for people, and unable (she is spirited and likely 'unwilling' is a better term) to leave.
She has two teenaged sons (eighteen and sixteen) and a toddler (two, with very squishy cheeks!) who are being very capably cared for by my brother-in-law, but he has Lupus, the symptoms of which are exacerbated by stress and lack of rest.
My momma just left me a voice mail saying that they were headed down there. I called back, and daddy said that they were running out of food, there's none available, and that the generator will soon be useless for lack of fuel. Obviously, there is none for purchase and they've drained their vehicles. My nephew has a dirt bike and a four-wheeler; they are leaving the fuel untouched in those in case there is a medical or some other emergency.
My sister laughed when she told me this yesterday. "IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, BETH. DIG THAT." There was a hard edge to her laughter, but the sound of genuine mirth came forth, as well. We Superiors are strong in two areas: We have hearty senses of humor and hard-planed righteous anger. We were built for national disasters, it seems.
So momma and daddy are off to purchase five-gallon gas cans and get them filled willy-nilly before the expected additional surge in pricing. They have to purchase groceries for ten people for ten days, as well. I offered to shop for them and meet them on the road somewhere so that they could get going, but dad said no and Southern girls listen to their daddies. His logic says that if there is another trip needed, I should conserve our resources so that we can take turns.
It is going to be a long haul. I cannot get away from the pressing need to help, but in a physical sense rather than a monetary one. I don't have much, but I want to put to use what I've got.
*cough*
