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Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here.
Hold on to life even when it is easier letting go.
Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you.
- Pueblo Blessing

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Saturday, May. 01, 2004 - 4:30 a.m.

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WARNING!!!! if you know me personally, you may read my diary, but if you do, you take the chance of hearing things you don't want to know, misunderstanding what I've written and being hurt by it. If you are unsure if it is ok to read, save yourself and me the grief and heartache, and ask first!!! Please note that this is a DIARY, ie my subjective feelings, hearsay, suppositions, and outpourings of ranting of the moment. It does not represent objective news, the whole of what I think of a topic or someone, or even a thought-out representation of any of the above. Keep that in mind. Thanks. * Here is a Diary Etiquette Read Me.

All Our Boys and Inclusion

Wow.

Yeah, wow.

Sometimes you read or hear about something that makes you go wow.

That makes you feel like so much is possible, and stop being scared yourself even though you don't feel so positive sometimes.

Here is the website of the Silcott family: allourboys.com.Anne Belles, who with her quadriplegic husband has adopted 25 boys, mostly physically and mentally disabled, with more in the works.

It sounds crazy and a bit over the top, like some Angel movie made for tv. But you can look at the pages of the individual boys and see how lively and fun it is.

The cool thing is that Anne, whom they call indomitable (I wonder if that word comes from not able to be dominated??), believes in something called "dignity of risk"... ie that handicapped kids shouldn't be coddled and babied, but shoved out into the community, so she puts kids into karate who are paralysed on one side, and kids who are developmentally delayed and with few social skills into theater classes.

And the kids see that it is not just them with their gimpy bodies who need to stretch (in physiotherapy) but that athletes stretch and strengthen too. So they fit in and get the same skills in a normal setting.

And kids who are shy get to learn to read parts of plays and develop their confidence in acting class.

I think it is wild, cuz it is sort of what I've been doing to myself, as an adult, these past few years. Deciding I will dare to play volleyball in the park with other illustrators despite the fact that my "ball skills" are zippo... and I have horrible social fears involving that which make me burst into tears when I drop a ball (duh, eh! yay for the supportive environment of grade school)... hehe, I'm not so bad at volleyball (at least compared to other illustrators!).

And deciding I would go onto stage and do a performance though I have horrid stage fright. It is amazing how your stage fright diminishes when you win a striptease competition! Hehe THAT is "dignity of risk"... don't coddle and protect, but advocate and encourage.

Very cool

Here is the page where you can click on any of the boys, Anne or and read a page about him or her.

It's funny. I heard about them on the radio. The woman was saying that since she went to Oliver!! as a child she was fixated on having a big gang of orphans. I say "it's funny" cuz myself all my dolls were orphans in my play as a child. They wore orphan clothes and were feisty. And when I was a teenager I used to volunteer with autistic kids, and babysat handicapped kids and teenagers (often older than I was).

It is funny. Maybe I should be thinking of adopting an older kid with problems. I am good at working out ways to overcome stuff, like my doggy's arthritis.

Though I am not a great people person like this woman. And I don't think I'd want 25 kids!! Though the cool thing is that they develop skills helping each other and having responsibility. I always felt very empowered when asked to teach one of my little brothers something, or help mom out. I think that is what made me want to be a mom. That feeling of being capable and necessary.

It would be cool to be able to give that to someone else.

All I need now is a quadriplegic husband to help the kids get to their appointments on time! (that is what it says he does on his webpage... among other cool things).

Yeah, maybe I should be looking in a completely different direction for being a "mom".

In the meanwhile....When I read the end of this article on "Inclusion" on their site, which says �You have to decide in the end what�s really important in life,� Ann says. �I want my kids to have friends. I want people to love and support them throughout their lives.�", I wish they would adopt ME!!

Here is my horoscope for Friday, April 30:

Get your paperwork done early. Get all your work done early, for that matter, because you won't feel like doing anything but chatting up a casual, lighthearted storm by the time night falls.

How did they know. I actually did one page of comics and traced all the drawings for the Baby contract that didn't need changes, this afternoon before 7pm. Then when I walked doggies (it was warm enough to wear only a t-shirt at 8pm for the first time this year... a very hot day with no shade for doggies since there are NO leaves on the trees yet!!!) I had a very nice time in the park with doggywalky people. That is rare. Usually there is no one at all.

Or the people there don't want anything to do with me... there is a whole bunch who sit and drink on Friday nights and tie their dogs to the picnic table. Now before that always seemed a bit insane to me. Their dogs who were in the park obstensibly to get exercise, are stuck on the table and dig holes. Everytime they start to trip in the holes, they move the table, so the whole area looks like a minefield where all the mines have exploded. That makes me angry as someone who uses the park, and as a fellow dog-owner... what a way for people to hate dogs!! And usually they are totally drunk, or stoned or whatever. I don't want to sit and get drunk and stoned at 8pm, I want to walk my dog.

Well tonight of course, my doggies really won't walk very far and so is more than happy to lie beside a table (after I played tugowar and growling with her a bit), AND there was actually the one woman with whom I have something in common... ie she is not a straight man who tells me I think too much and watches brainless action moves. She is not a straight man who thinks he is smarter than any woman younger than him. She is not a quiet socially acceptable girl who winces and makes an uncomfortable fake smile at me. She is not a drunk who pisses under a tree (yes, yay for some of these dog owners) and makes stupid jokes.

She is actually an intelligent hard-living hard-loving hard-working entrepreneurial woman like me, who owns a shop and recently dumped her (younger) boyfriend cuz he was too settled and boring and old in his head. hehe. She has a female rotweiler who is really dominant, and who is my doggy's good friend (the rot was a year older and played with my dog from the very first, 8 yrs ago).

The funny thing is the guy she was seeing when I first met her (and whom I didn't pay any attention to) became my friend Motorcyle Boy (whom I had a little short thingie with before ob) two years ago. hehe.

Anyways she offered me a Corona, and by being included by her, I was a "part of" the group, and not snubbed, and so she and I had a great blah blah and I had a very nice time. That is rare rare rare. Sigh.

It is amazing how I can get along with one person so easily and well, when I am no different from all the other ones who just do NOT get along with me and vice versa. Or that we are friendly but relatively indifferent (there are other nice people but we don't have much in common, or bump into each other infrequently).

Well, I WAS talking about my horoscope for today. Yeah, I had every intention of coming in to draw, and instead spent the past 7 hours scanning in the covers of my comic zines, and making thumbnails and scanning in one interior page for each of them, to eventually make into a webpage. Hmm. If I am REALLY lucky , people will read the page, and put $2 in an envelope to me to get the whole zine. Boy, I aim high! I will be a millionaire soon, I tell ya!

I guess most people would call that work. But I call anything that I don't have an employer for, "not work". hehe. The Little Criminal used to say "hey, you said you wouldn't work today, but I KNOW that cutting pics out of magazines for your reference files is WORK even if you LIKE doing it." gee. can't get anything by the Little Criminal.

Well, maybe my gabbiness is being expressed by this entry. I must go to bed. Or eat something. Tomorrow i am supposed to go to a bbq and a party.

It is supposed to pour rain with gale force winds. youzah. Perhaps I'll be really antisocial and stay in. hehehe.

Goodnight, and good morning to you all who actually get up before 1:28 pm (the time my alarm is set for) on a Saturday!

zzz, me, wenchie

ps. ack, my sore throat has turned into a tickly dry cough. yay.

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previous meanderings - future past

Goodbye Michael. May your next life be kinder to you. - Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Taking Care of Your Cows - Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Saint Joseph robs the cradle and eats spaghetti - Sunday, Jun. 14, 2009
sticky notes and broken irises - Friday, Jun. 12, 2009
The FOODCOMMANDER - Monday, Jun. 08, 2009

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