The Queen's Rambles

Before I start, I need to ask you if you have a good recc for a book about race. I need something to read to Erik and/or I need something to read myself that will help me know how to talk to him. I can talk about penis or vagina all day, even though it is awkward and embarrassing. I have no idea how to talk about race. We live in a minority majority county so this is a big problem. I suppose it would be a big problem anywhere, actually.

We’ve had some problems in the past with Erik being bullied because of his skin tone and with Erik saying racist things about other people. At this point I know we need to have a more in-depth talk because he has started asking why the characters in books and cartoon shows are white. Shouldn’t they be black? How can Judy Moody have two white friends? And how can that hot dog vendor be white? He is outside all day so he should be black because the sun will turn him black. And why does Erik have to wear sunscreen? If I would let him go outside without sunscreen he could be black like his friends.

Sooooooooo. . . .

Help me.

I am completely out of my depth here.

I don’t really understand why Europeans are white. I understand the whole melatonin thing, but then wouldn’t the native people of Canada also be white? But they are probably descended from Asians that crossed over the Russian land bridge. But how long does all this take? I don’t know. I need to find out. I need to start googling like crazy I guess. I would prefer a credible book.

Other than that, life is going full speed ahead. We have our last soccer game on Saturday, thank the good lords of Kobol. What a complete time suck. I feel like we never have a weekend anymore thanks to the Saturday games.

Though I should feel like we have weekends! Did I tell you that we saw Kenny Chesney on Memorial weekend? It was us and a Redskins stadium full of drunk girls. Lots and lots of drunk girls. They were making out with each other, random men, the security guards. The big, burly security guard in our section was not impressed with the fondling drunk girls trying to give him tongue.

The concert was really fun, other than that. I am not sure Mike would agree–I think he thought watching the drunk girls was the highlight. He is not really a country fan.

We celebrated our 10 year anniversary last weekend with the most expensive date we’ve ever had. We had a super yummy dinner at a local restaurant that focuses on sustainable farming. We finished off the meal with red velvet cake, which I liked! First piece of red velvet cake that I’ve ever liked. It usually tastes like food coloring and I’ve never been able to understand why food coloring is a flavor.

We also went and saw Star Trek at the Imax (it was the only showing that fit our schedule). I really enjoyed it. I’m not a Trekkie. I used to watch ST:NG and DS9 with my friend and Mike and I watched Enterprise together. I’ve seen all the Next Generation movies. I know nothing about the original series so the re-boot hasn’t bothered me in the least. I thought it was a fun movie especially seeing Sherlock as a complete badass.

Mike enjoyed it, but thought it was lame as a sci-fi movie. He thought there should have been fun aliens, not just a bunch of earthbound politics.

The thing that really made the date expensive: paying the babysitter $20/hour. Yikes! No wonder we never go out. We’ve gotten a little better now that we have a babysitting co-op, but we wanted to be free to not worry about getting back for one of my friends. Plus, no one in our babysitting co-op really uses it for evening dates so that would have been a little awkward.

Our other friends took our kids the weekend before, so we couldn’t ask them to do it again. I’ve practically begged them to let us take their kids, but they don’t seem to be interested in going out. They say it is too expensive, but eat take-out several times a week. I don’t really get it. I’d say it’s all good since they are happy, but it turns out they are not. I am trying to get my friend to understand that they NEED some couple time, but they are just not interested. Like I said, I don’t get it. I guess if they want to implode there is nothing I can do to stop them. Too bad everyone doesn’t want me to solve all their problems. I’d have the world lined out in minutes.

Erik has 8 more days of school. Last summer was a free-for-all. I didn’t make him do a single bit of school work after our awful year. He’s done much better this year and I don’t think it would cause hour long screaming fits if I schedule in some learning this summer. Right now I’m planning on doing 20 minutes of DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time for the whole family. Elsa can easily look at her books for 20 minutes, so I think it would be good for the kids to see me reading as well. I’m also going to set aside 10-15 minutes a day for some kind of workbook for each kid. I already bought a workbook for Elsa and she’s been eagerly working in it. She’s not doing what she’s supposed to be doing, but I am not letting it bother me. Four years ago I would have been an insane person, wailing and gnashing my teeth about why this rebel child wouldn’t circle the correct fish. Four years ago I WAS an insane person when it came to this type of thing, come to think of it. These days I’m just happy she is trying to move her pencil around the page. It’s good to be mellow.

Ok, time to put the boy in bed. Yet another night slips through my fingers.