Romneyshambles and the Evil Robot Ryan

Question: How many more "darkest hours" can Mitt Romney's campaign have?  The campaign is incompetent, they have a daily campaign reset/career-ending gaffe du jour,  the candidate is a cartoon of an evil, arrogant boob of a rich guy, and the vice presidential candidate is an Ayn Rand acolyte that can't stop lying even if it's about his body fat. As an added creepy bonus for me, Paul Ryan's empty eyes remind me of the evil robot on Queen's "News of the World" album that freaked me out as a child:

 

So even if he talked sense at all, I still wouldn't be able to bring myself to vote for him.  However, he keeps spouting about his Plan for Prosperity that amounts to "Fuck you, you're on you're own.  Rich people get more money." Today he was lying about what he would do on day one of the Romney presidency--getting rid of the contraception mandate.  Which is amazing, because vice presidents do not have that sort of authority.  They can only bang the gavel to start sessions of congress, and occasionally break a tie.  Oh, yes, Fox News, this is a 'really serious young man.'  Because we are dumber than shit and we totally are afraid of the scary black man. 

The thing is, they have looked so bad, I almost feel sorry for them.  Fortunately, there is no such thing as a pity vote from me when it comes to the office of President.

Finding Family and other thoughts

This has been a pretty good summer so far, personally. Can't complain. The garden is doing well, I am getting a lot of great time with the boys, and a lot of stuff we have meant to do around the house is getting done. We finally got the house re-roofed, and replaced our 20-year-old washer and next week, the ancient non-functioning oven.

My husband has been tracing his family tree for about a year and is making some significant progress. It's very challenging because once they worked their way back to the crossing to America, finding records in rural Poland and Czech and Slovakia is problematic. A few weeks back, he encouraged me to trace mine as well, so I started with my Mom's side, since most of the info on www.familysearch.org is American records. I was surprised to make it back within a day of searching to relatives going back to 1805 in rural Kentucky. They didn't move much, apparently. Now I am to relatives that were born in Bath, but actually, I am not sure if that refers to Bath, England or Bath, Kentucky. The census record didn't say. I may start looking into ship records. So far, I have not found our Native American ancestor. It may go way back. I have only looked at the direct descendants, but I am interested in finding the connections to our supposed famous relatives, Newton D. Baker (Secretary of War under Calvin Coolidge), Robert Montgomery and his daughter, Elizabeth (actors.)

Suddenly, an amazing turn of events! In some sort of serendipity, I was contacted by cousins in Scotland, wanting to know if I would be able to add to their tree and be able to connect to theirs! I was so EXCITED! My grandmother (father's mother) was from Scotland, and my Dad was speaking fondly of his cousins there and wondering if it was possible to find out if they were still in Scotland and still alive. Indeed they are, and they sent me several pictures of my grandparents and my Dad and my uncle that were in their records. It was so thrilling to me! The pictures were scanned in beautifully, and all of them were new to me. I have to connect to Ancestry.com to get to their tree, and that is going to be SO cool. I am looking forward to it.

Little Bits and Bites of my Life Lately

I have been delightfully busy, and I am remiss in my writing this year. I shall endeavor to be more bloggy, because I will soon have some time for it again.

First off, I have been working on a project for the Department of Natural Resources and the National Park Service regarding the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin. It's a 1200 mile long trail that shows off several geologic formations created where the glaciers were thousands of years ago. I filmed a couple of weeks ago the first half of the journey, and we are doing the second half all next week. It has been an excellent experience so far, and I have really enjoyed seeing Wisconsin's excellent park system, and all of its natural beauty. I am also working with just about the nicest group of crew and fellow actors that one could hope for. I look forward to this coming week!

Auditions worth doing theatre-wise are also starting to pop up again in better numbers, which is great, because for a long time there was a drought of decent material in my age group and gender. I had a great audition last week where I got a really excellent response to my audition, but I haven't heard back yet. It happens. What is meant to be is meant to be. At least it was memorable.

The back was giving me terrible troubles in February and March, but, knock on wood, it seems to be truly on the mend again. Sciatica sucks, and it also drains you if interest in life. During this bout of back issues, I discovered that if I take ibuprofen for too long, my hair starts falling out. That was interesting.

On a sad note, I was put "on hiatus" at my day job a few days ago. I am still just a contractor, and as such, I am the easiest to let go when things look bad, and easiest to call back when needed. And things are looking bad--really bad. They hope to call me back when things pick up again, but right now, I don't think I will be back in a few months like they hope.

You would think this would bum me out, but I am actually excited about it--looking for a new job sucks, but I have some great new leads already. In the mean time, I have house and writing projects that really need some management. And the boys are out of school soon, and I would like to spend some quality time with them. This lemon is going to make some excellent lemonade.

I know too many people like this.

Teenagers are Impressive

I have been working as an educator of sorts for over 30 years. This sounds like I am all grey haired or something, but I started as an early teen, so I am only mildly ancient.

When I was 13, I started volunteering at the local science museum, Center of Science and Industry (COSI). I was immediately was taught how to work with the public answering science questions, performing shows on science topics, and basically showing off with my huge, science-geeked teenage brain. I learned quickly that it I didn't know something, go look for the answer immediately--knowledge must not be faked. I learned it was okay to say, "I don't know, let's go find out." I got to run around in a lab coat, and wear a round badge with my name on it. I got to look like an adult, and I was thrilled when someone called me, "Ma'am." The first few shows I did were in and around a weather station, and included cool stuff like making clouds in a bell jar, cooking hotdogs in a parabolic mirror with the sun's rays and shooting pencils at 125 mph at blocks of wood through a tube to simulate the force of a tornadic wind. Later, I got to help create a show collaboratively on earthquakes, tornadoes and continental drift called "Shake, Rattle and Roll." This show had a grand finale of making a volcano that was lit with a magnesium strip, shot sparks and more than once got the carpeting smoldering. I was very proud of it.

I felt I had really made it at the museum though, when I was entrusted with helping to run the planetarium. They had a 1964 Spitz planetarium machine that was reportedly worth $250K, but looking back I really don't know what they paid for it. All we knew, was it was delicate, it fell apart easily, and changing its halogen lightbulb was devilishly difficult and could only be done by one of the adults. Learning how to work the planetarium was only allowed to a chosen few, because it was one of the most popular of the exhibits in the museum. All the shows effects were all orchestrated manually, and it took some dexterity to make it all look automated. One show had over 93 manual cues, and it was only a half hour long. Doing this 9 times or more in a day, and it was not surprising that if I was the only volunteer on duty, with one supervisor popping in from time to time for breaks, I would get sweat stains in the armpits of my lab coat.

Looking back, I can't help but be grateful for the amount of trust and leadership that the museum staff gave its volunteer force of teenagers. We truly did run that museum on the weekends and in the summer time. It couldn't have been done without us, and we were so proud of work experience it gave us--and the freedom to succeed or fail in being awarded new responsibilities.

In college, I got a paying gig as the weekend supervisor of the planetarium, and as one of the weekend overnight camp-in staff. I worked with a lot of volunteer teens, and I gained a new appreciation for how to work with them to gain their trust, and get their input on how to make science exciting for them and the thousands of visitors and scouts we had going through the programs.

I graduated and moved away, but whenever we go back to visit, COSI is always one of the places we must stop by.

Fast forward to about nine years ago--a fellow actor in a show I was in mentioned that he worked as a speech coach at a local high school, and they would love volunteers to work with team. Having also been a former high school and college speech geek, as well as a working actor, I jumped at the chance to see if I could work with them. It sounded like a blast.

I interviewed with the head coach, and she said, "You're not volunteering--I'm hiring you!" And I have been happily working with them ever since.

It's a part-time thing. The stipend is nice, but it isn't commensurate with the amount of hours we put in. However, a lot of us have been coaching for many years, and it's because we love it, and we truly enjoy our kids. I am sure my experience as a teen volunteer who was trusted and guided has some influence on my happiness in being able to coach and interact with the kids on the team.

The best thing about working with teenagers, is the amount of "brain explosion" that is going on in their lives. I mean this in a great way--I swear sometimes when I am working with a kid, I am watching neurons connecting and expanding their capabilities at lightning speed right before my eyes. Their ability to change and adapt and learn thrills and boggles my mind.

I love watching year to year, the freshmen novices evolving from uncertain, clueless little kids to seasoned, poised, and focused varsity members. You cannot judge a person by what he/she is like as a freshman. They change into new people every year, and in four years, you barely recognize them as the same person. It's so fun to watch.

I rejoice in the child who goes to every tournament, but doesn't break into finals for three years--then in her fourth year, figures it out grandly, and ends up being the only one on the team that makes it to State. That child has learned tenacity. That child has learned that hard work makes it happen.

I rejoice in the kid who decides to join the speech/debate team even though he has only been speaking English for 18 months. I admire his hard work and tenacity and rejoice when he starts getting top ranks. That child has learned so many things, but mostly that his ability to overcome adversity is a formidable gift.

I get frustrated with the talented child for whom acting or speaking comes easily at first, so they don't put in much effort to improve. I warn them they will get passed up, but it is the rare kid who heeds that warning. Usually that kid has to learn it the hard way, if at all, and it's brutal.

The best is the talented kid, who does learn that they still need to work hard to be the best, to push themselves, and that the drive to succeed has to come from inside them, not from someone else pushing them. That kid will succeed no matter he/she goes.

I am humbled and grateful for the chance to be a part of a coaching team that seems to make a real impact on the guidance and development of these wonderful kids. We have so many that come back after graduation for years to help out, to give back, and to share with others what we have given to them. This makes it come around full circle, and it is a wonderful thing for everyone.

Christmas and New Years

Christmas is a time for family.

If you aren't particularly religious or materialistic, like us, it's what it's mostly all about. That, and all the food you normally don't eat. And having time to catch a few movies.

We have traveled back to Ohio every Christmas every year for the family. Some years have been ridiculously snowy, and many years have been clear and unremarkable. Some years, a lot our peers from high school and college are back visiting their families, and we have a reunion. We have our favorite places to hit up in Columbus, and we never make it through the whole list in one trip. So, we come back.

The tradition of traveling there has gone on for a long time, probably past its usefulness. Family is important, but sometimes they aren't a lot of fun.

The absence of my Mom still weights very heavily in my heart. My Dad and my niece and nephew are always a joy, but other members are like black holes fighting for matter and everyone's energy.

My mom used to help to create some balance in the family, but now she is gone, and the dynamic has changed. The black holes take all they can get and offer nothing in return.

I resolve that next Christmas will be in a different place, and a new tradition will begin, sans anyone insisting on acting like a black hole.

New Years traditions also continued, and brought joy and contentment. We had our nuclear family gift exchange, the feast of favorite snacks, and board games were played. We always stay home, and it's a pleasant and low-key family time.