Easter Card from Barbara!

Taking the Day Off

It started with a text on Tuesday:

I was so excited that Jax wanted to hang out with me since he has off for Spring Break. Like the boy you have a crush on in school and will do anything to be near them, I immediately reached out to one of my managers, made sure there was enough coverage for Friday, removed one of my days off from September, put in for this Friday off, texted my sister-in-law to make sure I could kidnap Jax and then called him to say I was playing hooky and that we would be hanging out all day! 

I picked him up at MeMom and Pop's at 11ish, then we went over to LesbiVeggies for a yummy lunch. Or so I thought. For the second time they have screwed me over and been closed with zero notice. I had called Wednesday to make sure they would have their regular hours, was assured they would, then drove all the way over there today, parked outside the place and saw a note on the door that they would be doing takeaway orders only. LAME! So we went to the library and then to Healthy Garden for some grub and chit chat.

At 2ish we headed to see Syd at All Fired Up. Jax painted his stealth bomber jet and I picked out a little gingerbread ornament. I'm no artist and didn't want anything that I'd screw up. I started painting him and the brushstrokes were all over the place, like when a three year old colours. I was berating myself and getting angry for being such a loser and basically throwing a tantrum. Jax switched into adult mode, calming me with Bob Ross-like words: "I think it looks great! Really. I wouldn't lie. It's abstract and can look however you want. It doesn't have to be perfect because you're just expressing yourself." Eventually I calmed down and even though my ginger-man looks far from perfect, I did have fun and we are SO going back again, even though the prices there are sky-high.

(I named my Gingerbread-man Damien after Fr. Damien since today is Father Damien Day.)

After hugs to Syd we dashed over to see Nana Rose for a bit, then two hours of coding class, followed by a pit stop at Whole Foods for some snickety-snacks (cookies) for the ride home. We listened to Henry Winkler narrate Here's Hank: Everybody is Somebody and went back to see MeMom for Jackson to deliver the Easter egg he made her. Finally we arrived back to his house by 10 for a quick smoke break in the garage with Xavier and Mary and then hugs goodbye. It was definitely a day jam-packed with good times, great conversation, lovely company, and fun memories. We are already talking about when we can go back and this time bring Nana Rose!

BONUS: Jackson's piece turned out great!

52 - The Quiet

The Quiet

Our heads were too noisy and the world was too loud. We walked through our days with tense muscles, electrified nerves, and aching brains. We needed to relax. We craved peace and quiet but did not know where to find it. One day we noticed a man sitting in a field, his legs crossed and eyes closed with a gentle smile. "Yes," we said. "This is how we should live." And so we canceled our appointments, switched off our devices, and joined him. We sat in the grass and practiced being perfectly still, and in this way we managed to stop the world - for a few minutes, anyway. The world quickly slipped back into our heads, reminding us of the things we wanted to do, the people we wanted to hug, and the ideas we wanted to share. But we had committed to being quiet and sitting perfectly still, so we did not move for days, even though our thoughts were noisier than ever. When we could stand it no longer, some of us opened our eyes and saw that the man with the gentle smile was across the street, talking on his telephone and eating a sandwich.

Peace and quiet comes only if we remain still when it is time to keep still and if we move when it is time to take action. Eliminate anxiety about the future by focusing on the present.

Vintage Amy & Star

Going through some old shoeboxes I found these photos of me and Amy. The first is obviously 1989 when I was obsessed with Tim Burton's Batman while the last two were from the Summer 1995. I was nineteen, Amy seventeen, and I had fully embraced my look - short, shaved, blue-black hair, vintage cut-offs and oversized men's shirts. I still have that striped shirt and those jean shorts because it represented the end of the torture that was high school. I was young and healthy and hanging out with my bestest bestie, the person who has always supported and loved me just as I was.

 

April 2022 Donations

UNICEF

Once again I needed to do something to help with the atrocities in the Ukraine and this time I put my money with UNICEF. They have over 75 years of humanitarian response expertise and I knew my small donation was going to the right place.

A new child refugee every second. 

One month since the start of the war in Ukraine on Feb. 24, more than half of Ukraine's estimated 7.5 million children have been displaced. The outflux of people — mostly children and women — fleeing violence in Ukraine dwarfs all other refugee crises of recent years in terms of scale and speed. As of March 24, more than 4 million people — including 1.8 million children — had crossed into Poland, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, Hungary and other neighboring countries — according to data from UNHCR, the UN's lead refugee agency. 

The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine continues to evolve and deepen at an alarming pace.

Even before the heavy weapons fire and air strikes on cities and civilian neighborhoods, insecurity and deprivation had become a way of life for families in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts due to a conflict that started in March 2014. Humanitarian needs have been particularly acute for those living in the vicinity of the 'contact line' that separates government-controlled areas from non-government-controlled areas.

UNICEF's emergency response teams — who have been on the ground in Ukraine since 2014, addressing impacts of conflict on children in the eastern region — have significantly scaled up operations all across the country since war broke out Feb. 24, 2022

UNICEF response teams have been on the ground on both sides of the contact line for the past eight years, delivering humanitarian assistance to impacted communities. The socio-economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic only compounded existing hardships. UNICEF has been steadily ramping up support focusing on the hardest-hit areas.

Together with partners, UNICEF continues to scale up emergency operations as the war continues, putting the safety and future well-being of the country's 7.5 million children at grave risk.

UNICEF is committed to sustaining and expanding this critical support, leveraging existing relationships and programmatic presence to reach the most vulnerable — those who remain in Ukraine and those who have fled to neighboring countries. 

"It's important to understand what we're dealing with here," UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder said during a March 15 briefing. "A million and a half children have left their homes in Ukraine... Approximately one child has become a refugee every second since the war started."

How UNICEF is helping children in Ukraine

UNICEF's humanitarian work in Ukraine focuses on meeting the most critical urgent needs for safety, health care, safe water and nutrition, protection while also safeguarding children's rights and long term well-being.

Schools and hospitals and critical infrastructure have all been and continue to be frequently targeted by attacks, disrupting and limiting access to essential services. For many years, and well before conflict started in the eastern region, UNICEF had been providing critical support to help close gaps in Ukraine's health system, particularly in the areas of childhood immunizations and HIV prevention. That support has been significantly expanded as UNICEF rushes essential medicines, midwifery kits, surgical kits and other lifesaving supplies to health facilities where women have been giving birth in makeshift basement bunkers since the war started.

More support is urgently needed to help fund UNICEF's response in and around Ukraine as the situation for children and families continues to deteriorate.

Please join me in the Low Budget Philanthropy movement and help out your community and beyond in the simplest way - donating any amount to whatever charity or organisation that you care about!

South Park Star

Years back an old co-worker/pal found a site where you could make South Park versions of yourself. Here's mine. 

(Still fairly accurate except for the hair colour.)

A Week in Photos

Here are moments that I captured during the week of May 21, 2006.