I'm a fan of the school uniform.

Monday through Thursday the boys wear charcoal grey slacks (there is no better word for this type of pant, with it's pleats and creases and reinforced knees) and navy polo shirts.  Fridays it's black sweat pants and white t-shirts.  I bought 4 polo shirts, 3 pairs of slacks, and a navy cardigan- which will be required after October 1st.  If a shirt isn't dirty it gets hung up for tomorrow.  Same goes for the slacks.  Thank all that is holy that these kids don't wear khaki pants and white shirts like the Catholic kids up the street.  I'd be living in the laundry room and advising you to buy stock in Oxyclean.

***

I asked Jacob if they have to say the pledge each day, and he answered, "yes, but it's a weird one.  They make us say 'God Bless America' afterwards".  I almost puked.  I didn't say anything, because I don't want him to know I have an opinion on that whole matter, but the idea of my baby heiling the flag and asking God to Bless America makes me a little dizzy. 
If you saw a bunch of three to four foot tall (insert ethnic enemy of choice here) children standing in formation and reciting something to (insert symbol of enemy here) and asking (insert diety of choice here) to bless (insert country enemy of choice here), how would you feel?
The idea creeps me out, no matter what flag/god/country we are dealing with.

God bless my underwear, my only pair.
Stand beside them, and guide them,
Through the rips, through the holes, through the tears.
From the washer, to the dryer, to the clothesline in the air.
God bless my underwear, my only pair.

I'll get over it.  And if Al Jazeera has set up cameras in the classroom and uses what they see to promote an  Anti-American sentiment video that portrays our children as hate-filled loyalists, I guess we have bigger problems.

***

I snuck down into the pool yesterday to watch the kids swim, and was absolutely tickled to see Jake on the pool deck with the other boys, holding one another's ankles during sit ups and doing ten pushups with their feet against the wall and their arms on the dive bars (I guess they are dive bars, they are built into the deck on the edge of the pool, about four inches off the floor) and ten jumping jacks and getting back down and doing it again.  Their little selves working hard in the equatorial temperatures down there in the pool area.  Jake has one of those Abercrombie teen sort of bodies.  Long arms and legs and torso that never had chubby rolls or paunches of babyness to them.  It's weird to see him use all those tiny muscles that would photograph well in a controversial catalog.  It's weird to describe your child's body on the internet.

***

I found a really good pizza place in University City.  By "really good" I mean the pizza is less than $3 a slice and I can hide out there between appointments and catch up on paperwork and Sudokus. 

I feel like a racist if I do Sudokus in front of Asian people.

***

I just finished up 15 hours of training on Group Facilitation, and my 45th hour of Trauma Awareness.  I start my final 30 hours of trauma training next week.  I'm tired.  But smarter than I was 60 hours ago.  Classes are in 2.5 hour blocks, meeting every two weeks with about 3 hours of reading and writing between classes.  It's a lot.  The organization that hosts the classes has a blog that I have in my reader and have been meaning to check out.  Maybe you'll beat me to it by clicking here.  I'm hoping it is user friendly and people who aren't in the field can get lots of information from it.

***

Autumn starts on Friday, and I usually cut my hair on the solstices and equinoxes but I'm letting it grow out.  I got it cut super short on the first day of winter and again on the first day of summer and I don't plan to cut it again until December 22nd.  I did trim some ratty ends a few weeks ago.  It's getting longer.  For the first time since right after I had Jake, my hair is past my chin all the way around my head.
And it's not falling out anymore.  I don't know what made it stop, but I'm glad it did.  A year ago I had half the hair I had a year and a half ago.  Today I have about 75% of the hair I had a year and a half ago. 

I'll take it.

***

Isn't it weird that if you burp, fart, cough, sniffle, whatever it is your responsibility to excuse yourself to those around you but if you sneeze everyone around you is responsible for excusing the sneeze by making a big blessing and offering you a tissue and saying things like 'my goodness!' and asking if you are okay?  I call shenanigans.  I'm done taking on the onus of other people's sneezes.  The sneeze is seriously like, the most revolting and violent of all bodily expulsions.  Germs and spit and snots come rushing out of your head faster than a locomotive engine and it's MY job to clear all that up for you?

No thank you.

God Bless Your Own Damned Self.
Dammit.