ALABBD: Put an ampersand in that BM

Bitch and moan, bitch and moan. Today is the day for it. Here I go:

Evidently it's March again. Rain, wind, more rain, more wind. And we had to turn the heat back up. Enough already!

It's too hot in Arizona for me to mentally escape to there now.

Frank is sick. I hate that. For whatever reason (or lack thereof), I get PISSED OFF when Frank is sick. I feel totally abandoned. It's just a damned good thing he hates being pampered when he's sick, because it might be a little hard for me to switch to pamper mode at this point.

Nobody would help me decide what to do for dinner, so, to please myself and in honor of Master Zhou, I got some takeout Chinese. Luckily, the family was pleased, too. I pity the fool who dared to complain at that moment.

Note to self: Scheduling two dentist appointments, two orthodontist appointments, a driver's ed drive that requires some preparatory practice time, and a tai chi class all on the same day is a Bad Idea.

Maybe if I were one of those women who can tell you with reasonable accuracy that they will be cranky on December 13, 2011, I would be able to plan better.

Maybe if I were a different person I would be able to plan better.

Maybe if I weren't such a big baby I would be able to cut myself some freaking slack.

ANYWAY.

To help with my fragile (?) mental state, I will throw in some bright sides now:

• The flowers like it.
• The cacti like it.
• There's no puking involved.
• They're not stupid.
• We were on time for everything.
• I don't hurt.
• Umm...
• Pursuit of excellence and all that crap.

In an amusing coincidence, the "street rat crazy" Jack in the Box commercial just came on downstairs. That's a good alternate name for ALABBD: Street Rat Crazy Day.

ALABBD: It floats!

Clearly my need for whining is not on a 28-day cycle. I awoke this morning feeling lighter, optimistic, creative, even inspired. Since the True Spirit of ALABBD is allowing myself a day for doing just whatever I want, a lá Audrey's princess, I am certainly not going to whine when I don't feel like it.

Instead, I turn just a bit of my newfound creative energies to the restructuring of Act Like a Big Baby Day. As originally scheduled, it was to take place on the second Friday of each month. I hereby grant to myself and to all of you a new ALABBD schedule: whenever we damn well need it.

Feeling tired, cranky, and put upon? Pout, stomp your feet, and put yourself down for a nap. Hormones got the best of you? Set up the red tent, cozy down with a good book, and just be. Tired of being fair and balanced? Spew a little venom on your blog.

It's allowed! It's ALABBD!

ALABBD: W is for whining

It's that time again, people. I almost forgot.

I'm not feeling so put upon this month. But there's always something to whine about.


Work
I've been putting in lots (LOTS) of hours. It's going well and I've once again survived the effects of previous procrastination. But I sure am seeing a lot of that place and not much of my favorite people.


War
Yes, it is (they are) still there. Latest Iraq casualty counts


Weather
Snow in the forecast. May I just say: UGH. I'm too busy for this crap.


Wuss
Blagojevich


W
Rachel's Lame Duck Watch videos

Being unreasonable

This post was inspired by Idzie and is part of my Act Like a Big Baby Day celebration, since today I don't have to be politically correct.

So, the topic is Veterans Day. Every year, this holiday inspires a messy stew of mixed feelings in me, and every year I bite my tongue. Not this year.

I don't have a problem with honoring our veterans. There are some veterans in my life whom I honor very much. However, I am at root a pacifist, and I find our twice-annual national recognition of this particular group of people a little distressing. My discomfort has nothing to do with their service; it doesn't matter to me how long they served, whether they served in peacetime or wartime or both, whether they lost friends or limbs or just a little time.

What bothers me is that they are the only group we honor, and I think that makes a terrible statement about what we value in this country.

Where is our holiday for honoring people who serve in other ways, the firefighters and cops and EMTs? These people face horrors daily, for decades, and they, too, lose comrades in arms.

Where is our holiday for honoring the peaceful people who protest our country's more outrageous acts? They, too, sacrifice time, money, comfort, safety, their freedom, and sometimes their lives.

Where is our holiday for honoring people who choose low-paying jobs in nursing, education, charity work, and so on, just because they care? They, too, set aside personal advantages and work for the common good.

Twice a year our president (of either party) makes a speech thanking veterans for their service, and all the media outlets rush to cover it, and all our schoolchildren are forced to participate in assemblies, and many of us break out our flags and our gratitude for a few hours. And that's okay with me, it really is (well, except for the forcing part). I wouldn't want to live in the world we'd have if not for the people who fought in most of our past wars. I don't really want to find out what the world would be like if we got rid of our armed forces (intriguing idea though it is).

But neither do I want to define patriotism as carrying a weapon or dropping a bomb. We can do better than that! I can do better than that:

Patriotism is loving your country enough to take action.

Period.

Here are a dozen patriotic 'veterans' I am honoring today:
Daniel Shays
Sojourner Truth
William Lloyd Garrison
Elizabeth Blackwell
Alice Paul
Edward R. Murrow
Howard Zinn
John Taylor Gatto
Allison Krause
Crystal Lee Jordan
Michael J. Fox
will.i.am

ALABBD

I hereby declare the second Friday of every month:


I'm tired of being a good little soldier. I'm tired of focusing on joy. I'm tired of being fair. I just want to be pouty and unreasonable.

And I don't think it's unreasonable to have one day a month for doing that!

So there.

Want to join in? Feel free to steal the above primitive image to use as a button on your sidebar. If you really want to get into it, link the image to this post, and leave me a comment so I know who's in the club.

Update 2/13: ALABBD is evolving. See here.