My New Kitty

Yep, that's right, I got a roommate. She's absolutely adorable. It can get so lonely being by myself, and not having anyone else to talk to in my apartment, so I got a friend! She's an 8 month old tuxedo kitten (black with white boots). I also think she looks like she has a bikini on when she's on her back.. cause she has 2 white splotches in strategically placed spots on her belly. She loves getting belly rubs. She's affectionate, but likes to be independent (meaning she's not super cuddly). She's incredibly talkative, and hasn't quite realized that there are times to a day (and night) and gets talkative at very random times. She is also still learning that I will always come back... and feels the need to follow me around the house when I'm wandering around. She also likes to have me follow her into my bathroom... she doesn't do anything in there, just likes to have me follow her. She's also a DREAM when it comes to going in her carrier and walking around town with me. I took her to the pet groomers to get her nails clipped and got her first ride on the streetcar. She seemed pretty calm, so we'll have to do that more often. She also went with me to the grocery store yesterday, and again, seemed to enjoy it. My goal has been to convince her that the carrier isn't just a way to get to a bad place (vet, etc)... so I leave it out and she loves to wander in/out of it.

Enjoy this cute little video that I've put together of her. And to get the full effect of the song choice (lol), pause my music before clicking play. Oh yeah.. and you'll notice, she matches my apartment (black, white, and green). :-) hehehe oh well.. I'm a girl, deal with it!

OH YEAH!!! You have to see the last pic in the movie.. It's TOTAL "Puss n' Boots" from Shrek!!!

American Families in TV - 1950's blog entry

When we think of 1950’s mothers, many minds go directly to images such television mom’s as June Cleaver, Lucy Ricardo, Donna Reed and Harriet Nelson. Many of us are at least one generation removed from mothers of the 1950’s, so this is not hard to understand for us. The interesting point comes when those who grew up during the 1950’s are asked and they also think of these iconic women as opposed to their own mothers. This simple experiment shows us several things. One being that during the 1950’s, many children wished they had mothers like those on television, and that these women were far enough removed from the typical family reality that many women during the 1950’s may have felt inferior, unfulfilled, and perhaps even envious of the dream portrayed on TV.


Television moms were always shown to have very little work to accomplish during their day. Many were shown to have time to play bridge with the “ladies”, bake lavish home-cooked meals, grocery shop, and attend weekly appointments at the beauty salon… all in time to be home in plenty of time to waiting when children come home from school. Children were rarely seen after suppertime, and there never seemed to be serious disputes over chores or bedtime. Women seemed fulfilled with their simple lives of cooking, sewing, shopping, Bridge, and the minimal cleaning (alright, seriously… vacuuming the same spot repeatedly, the occasional dish, and the quick sweep with the dust cloth). They never seemed to desire a life outside the home, or to want other activities to fill their time. These portrayals seem vastly different from what we know about the “true 1950’s mother”.


I found a blog online that mimicked many of the feelings that my father also felt about his mother’s role during the 1950’s.

"Ruby Red Slipper:"
"My own mother’s stories from the era don’t ring true to the stereotype. According to her, back then children were seen and not heard. She and her brother ate an early dinner in kitchen by themselves, took their baths, and then stopped by the living room for a kiss from their father during cocktail hour before being sent off to their bedrooms for the rest of the evening. There were only a handful of hours she could possibly spend with her mother between the end of the school day and this 6 pm ritual. Not only that, but my grandmother was highly involved in community-related activities: garden club, fund-raising bazaars, sorority alumnae chapters, PTA president. Those participations don't sound like the selfless activities we associate with the post-war mother."

According to my dad, he would eat supper around 5 and be bathed and ready for bed by 6 when his father came home. My dad would go to his room to complete his homework while his father ate and relaxed (no martini’s in this house). The weekends were the only time he saw his father, and that was usually to help with yardwork around the house. My grandmother was an avid cook, cleaned neighbors houses, and was a regional director for the women’s lodge (at the same time my grandfather was in the men’s Oddfellows lodge). Both of my grandparents were significantly removed from the goings on of my dad, and were more interested in his staying out of trouble. When he would get in trouble, (severe) discipline was given, but rarely would either of his parents know the names of his friends/teachers, etc. This is obviously a very different view of motherhood from what we watch of the classic 1950’s shows.

I think that this gap between reality and fantasy could have been a strong contributing factor to the depression that continued to rise, the closet drinking among housewives, and the feelings of dissatisfaction that lead to divorce. Women watching these television shows may feel stressed to accomplish all that they do, in addition to the things “June Cleaver” could do… and maintain the appearances that were so important during that time.

According to Associated Content:
"The role of women in the 1950 was a society-endorsing template that all women had to fill. Women had to be prefect mothers, obedient wives and clever homemakers. This perfection was not n a personal level, but rather on societies standards. The raising of the new generation was extremely important at this time so women worked diligently and hard to fill the oversized shoes prepared for them. Many TV shows of the fifties portrays this angelic mother figure with not a care in the world except her children. That is merely an illusion: women were bored, they wanted something more mind stimulating and weaving just didn't cut it."

I made a little list to figure out what would be ocuring in a regular day for a “television 50’s wife” the way it is portrayed on television:

Shower, Primp & Makeup
Breakfast from scratch, homemade lunches, lavish dinner (from scratch)
Wake Children
Kids off to school, Husband off to work
Cleaning, Sewing
Salon appt
Bridge with girls
Grocery shopping
Bake cookies
Kids come home, Children’s homework
Husband comes home
Dishes
Children: bathed, bed

Then try to add what “true” 50’s moms also did:
PTA, lodge, working, scouting, garden clubs, (real) cleaning, laundry, making beds, etc.

No wonder they felt bad about themselves!!!

Amen!!!

Better duck — if you're a Mormon
By Doug Robinson
Deseret Morning News
Published: Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008 12:58 a.m. MST

I missed the memo that said it's A-OK to make disparaging and often erroneous statements about Mormons.
Apparently, they are fair game.

Sure, these are hypersensitive times, when name-calling or perceived bias against any group will get you the Don Imus treatment, but you get a free shot with Mormons. You can say what you want about them with impunity.

If you denigrate a racial group, you're racist.

If you denigrate women, you're sexist.

If you denigrate Mormons, you're hip.

No one would openly suggest that you shouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton because a woman can't lead the country, especially an ornery one.

Nobody would dare say that you shouldn't vote for Barack Hussein Obama because he's black, or of Muslim descent, or because he has a name that sounds like a terrorist. One Clinton worker even apologized for alluding to Obama's use of drugs as a youth, so apparently it's wrong to disparage former drug users, too.

But nobody is shy about saying you shouldn't vote for Romney simply because he's a Mormon. It doesn't even register on the PC-O-Meter.

Just like that, 6 million Americans have been virtually disqualified from running for president. They've been rendered second-class citizens. They're foreigners living in America. They face a glass ceiling.
How un-American is that?
It would be one thing if most of those who oppose Romney did so because they disagreed with his politics or character. But Romney is one of the few candidates who has no character issues, a "squeaky clean" man who has a distinguished record of accomplishments, success and service, with no divorces, no affairs, no scandal. The only thing opponents can say about him is that he belongs to a church they don't understand.

A Harvard law professor called Romney the most qualified of all the candidates and "the perfect candidate for this moment in time." But there is his Mormonism, he noted.

Even the self-styled PC chief of police, Al Sharpton, once jumped in on the action, saying, "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways."

Mormons don't believe in God?

For his penance, all Sharpton had to do was endure a family home evening in Utah.

It's open season on Mormons. A few days ago, Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard stated on ESPN and in the newspaper that part of the reason fired coach Cam Cameron failed was because he got stuck with a Mormon quarterback — not a rookie quarterback (which he is) but a Mormon quarterback.

"And you'll have a hard time finding a leader anywhere in sports who was as unlucky this year as Cameron," Le Batard said, noting that because of injuries, Cameron was forced to play "a United Nations huddle of a Mormon quarterback, Mexican receiver, Samoan fullback and some guy named Lekekekkkkerkker."

Now Mormons are foreigners?

Ignorance makes no difference. You can say Mormons have four wives or that they aren't Christian, and no one cares.

Imagine the uproar if Le Batard had written that the Dolphins suffered because they had to play a black quarterback for part of the season? Or a Catholic?

The Salt Lake Tribune has had a field day for more than a week since learning that Mike Leavitt and some of his like-minded cohorts met early in the morning to discuss Mormon theology and governance while he was Utah's governor. What if it had been a Bible study?

Nobody seems to mind when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says his religion "defines me." Or when Obama says his church guides "my own values and my own beliefs."

People worry that Romney will take his orders from his church leaders. They don't worry that Obama will take orders from his church, whose "10-point vision" includes two references to its "non-negotiable commitment to Africa," with no mention of America. Oh, and the church statement begins by noting on the Trinity United Church of Christ Web site, "We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black."

It's a different set of rules for some out there. You can print newspaper cartoons disparaging Mormons. You can harass their families as they walk to their biannual conference with all sorts of foul language. When someone commits a crime, you can note the criminal's religion, but only if he's Mormon. You can make them a one-liner on Leno. Good luck reconciling all this with the paranoid political correctness that's so in vogue.

Meanwhile, the most politically correct presidential election field ever assembled — a woman, a black, a Mormon, a Baptist, etc. — has gone politically incorrect, but only when it comes to you know who.