rebellion

i quit plucking my eyebrows a few months ago. i have no idea what precipitated this. nothing, actually.  i was just too busy to pluck them, and then it got embarrassing but i still never got around to it, and then it got downright out of control and i became intrigued so i went with it.

i haven't decided whether i'm going to go back to my old hyper-manicured ways. one minute i feel unkempt and shabby and the next i feel european and self righteous. who knew tweezers could instigate such emotions? who would have thought i'd ever blog about my eyebrows?

 when i started this blog did i contemplate sharing my grooming habits with the world? 

is there any more leftover tabouli in the fridge?

but then again, there are some cool people, too

the whole dog thing has got me thinking about a similar incident last summer.

we live on one of the main streets of our neighborhood. the side streets kind of branch off of our street. it seems like every stray dog figures this out at some point and winds its way past our house during its own little Incredible Journey. most of the time they won't come to me, but when they will, i do my best to get them home.

one evening last summer i came home from work around dusk. i got out of the car and glanced across the street and saw a white dog lying up against my neighbor's privacy fence, near the curb, panting hard. i didn't have to get very close to see that the dog was old and exhausted. he was not wearing a collar, and he couldn't even stand up to make it across the street to my back yard.

i took him some water and then called the local police department to see if anyone had reported a lost dog. i figured that--worst case scenario--he'd be better off spending a few nights in the animal shelter than fending for himself.

the dispatcher asked me to describe the dog and she said that someone had reported a dog missing that matched the exact description. she took down my address and told me that she would notify the owners.

i hovered around the front door keeping an eye on the fellow, and within five minutes a woman pulled up in a volvo station wagon with a couple of kids around 10 or 12 years old. they bounded out of the car and gently loaded the dog up in the back. they were elated to see him. i stepped out onto the driveway long enough to wave to them and tell them that i was happy he was going home.

i went back into the house and about thirty minutes later i was on the phone with J--who was out of town for business--when the doorbell rang. this is completely unusual.

i opened the door and the two kids were there with a package of fresh cookies from the local grocery story and a bouquet of flowers. they thanked me for saving their dog, and the older one gushed about how she'd had the dog her whole life and they had been so worried about him and then she hugged me. i was flattered by the unnecessary gesture, but i know it made the kids feel good to do something reciprocal. not to mention that their parents must be raising them right.

the whole situation made my heart swell a little, and it's those intangible rewards that make the effort worth it even when it seems so unworthwhile, like today.

and i'm not even a dog person.

my "humans suck" post of the week

this morning as i was leaving for work, a gigantic chocolate lab came bounding toward me. he was a friendly dog who clearly had a home, so i reached out for his collar to read it. he ducked when i reached to pet his head like he was afraid i was going to hit him. i hate it when dogs do that. makes me want to beat their owners.

his tag said "Miles." had a phone number.

i put Miles in our back yard and called the phone number. a man picks up the phone (sounded like a cell). i said, "hi. i have your dog." the man, clearly irritated, responds, "where do you live?" i gave him the major cross streets and he responded, "okay, i will have my wife come and get him." he doesn't ask my name, my phone number, my address - nothing. i told him to call me back on my cell phone number, and he hung up on me.

jerk. as if i get paid to rescue dogs for a living. i have a job to get to, too. and i know exactly where MY dog is (at that moment, i'm sure she had crawled into the still-warm-yet-forbidden bed and was actively shedding all over my pillow).

J was in the house sleeping after working last night and i felt genuinely bad for him because i knew that the min-ute that valkyrie (our 20lb miniature pinscher) discovered that there was another Dog in her backyard she would go nuts. which she did, all morning long, according to J, who called me groggy around lunch.

unfortunately, J also told me that Miles dug out of our back yard at the gate and was gone.

this sucks for a handful of reasons, including that we just paid a pretty penny to have that fence put up and we're going to have to fill that hole in so that valkyrie doesn't get out. also, i was kind of hoping that the guy didn't call me back and we could keep the dog. it was such a nice dog, and based upon my 30-second conversation with his owner i'd convinced myself that these people didn't deserve the dog, anyway.

so i called the number back and no one picked up. i left a snippy voicemail indicating that this was the person who had their dog calling again, and no one ever called me back about him, and now the dog has dug out of the fence and we no longer have him, but call me if you have questions.

i hope Miles comes back, or i hope he finds someone who loves him, or at the very least finds his way home without meeting disaster. if valkyrie got out and someone called us to let us know that they had her, i certainly wouldn't let 3 or 4 hours pass with no contact--i'd be right over there. before she yipped them to death.

people are such jerks. i hope the dog is safe.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep, 

And miles to go before I sleep, 

And miles to go before I sleep.

immigrant children are contagious

or so this city councilwoman seems to think.

Dallas Suburb bans rentals by illegal immigrants

it's hard for me to even discuss this topic because i think what we're doing to illegal immigrants is just so blatantly outrageous from a moral, ethical, and human rights standpoint.

but this city councilwoman from escondido, california goes on the record as saying, "We have to deal with the overcrowding in our neighborhoods. We have to deal with the overcrowding of our schools and the diseases that our children are exposed to. Our police department has to fight the gangs."

well, first of all, if you have a problem with overcrowding in your neighborhoods and schools, perhaps you should start with your american-born neighbors who have six children and then vote against tax bonds to support the school systems and infrastructure that support their massive family because they can't afford to pay more taxes and feed their six children. overcrowding is not an immigrant problem, it is an american problem, and we are all responsible for it. it results from our own failure to update our societal infrastructure to support the demands of our own increasing population, and our short-sighted eagerness to have litters of children in the face of evidence that by doing so we are dooming the human race. armageddon is racing at us at breakneck speed, and the beast is us.

but back to the point: immigrants make up a fraction of the overcrowding problem in the public schools. sure, there are statistics on how many more immigrant children attend public schools than ten years ago. but where are the studies on the increase in american-born children? immigrant children are just easier to point the finger at. i mean, c'mon, who wants to blame the soccer mom in her tax-sheltered Lexus SUV full of adorable little boys for overcrowding in the public schools? i mean, i do, but no one else really does. they like to blame the illegals. 

and as far as police departments fighting gangs, well, i am pretty sure that there are a lot of fine red-blooded american gang members who are alive and well and threatening our collective well-being as i write this. i don't think this is an immigration problem, either. i think it's a law enforcement problem. law enforcement who don't have the funding to deal with these problems, no matter what the race of the offenders.

but the worst part - the WORST part - is her reference to "the diseases our children are exposed to."

i'm sorry. WHAT?

do you seriously think that illegal immigrant children somehow pose more of a danger to the health of your six children than legal immigrant children? or that vaccinated immigrant children, by virtue of being illegal, are more of a health threat than the thousands - even tens of thousands - of american children who go unvaccinated every year? do you think if your child is exposed to an illegal immigrant child in the playground that her chances of contracting polio, or t.b., or scurvy--or whatever it is you're afraid of--suddenly increase because this child lacks the requisite paperwork? even though it's possible that the soccer mom's six kids have gone unvaccinated by choice because of the major health risks associated with vaccinating children?

and when did "the immigration debate" become politically correct code for "the mexican problem?" somehow i doubt this woman is referring to canadian illegal immigrants. in fact, i didn't say "mexican" one time in this entire blog until now, but i bet you $100 that you were thinking about mexican children the entire time you read this.

what a racist, hate-filled, intolerant society we've become, so quick to shatter the dreams of others when they begin to too-closely resemble our own.

UNICEF