Wassup 2008

I remember the original commercial. This parody is amazing!

Pumpkin Patch

Well this weekend it really cool off here in Phoenix. The temperature dropped to around 75-79 during the day and around 60-65 at night. For some of you I know that is still warm, but on Saturday night it was cold with the wind, even Ian said it was cold. :)

Today Maddie didn't have school because it is Columbus Day so we relaxed during the morning and then in the afternoon we took the kids to the pumpkin patch and they had fun. We got them both little pumpkins and Ian did not want to leave. Then we went to the play area at the mall at that is when the chaos happened but not with our kids. At the play area there is a height requirement and rules and what not. Maddie does a good job being careful of the little ones and really just plays with Ian. Well today with their being no school everybody and their brother was there. First is started with 9 and 10 years old trying to be on the merry-go-round that is for kids like Ian's age. So I said something to them to get off. Then, there were bigger girls running and one of them ran over Ian and I yelled at them too. Then one boy climbed on top of one of the toys and decided to jump off. When he jumped, Maddie was walking by and he landed on her. She was ok and just has a little mark under her eye. But when we were at the all half of her face was red from rug burn. I must say I controlled myself very well. :) Then there were even bigger boys that were playing tag. So we decided to leave. Then while I was putting on Ian's shoes they ran into us and both Kath and I yelled at them. For me it was the second time of telling them to stop running.

So we were leaving the mall and I saw the Guest Services area and decided to make a complaint because all of those kids were too big to be in there. The Assistant Manager took my complaint, phone number and gave Maddie and ice pack for her face. He was also going to send another Security Guard over again. We were the third complaint today about the size of the kids. Whats funny is that is it just more the parents not being parents and following the rules. Blah!

Well when we got home Ian and Maddie drew faces on there pumpkins and then Ian dropped his again and cracked the top of it and it started leaking. Anyways, the kids had a great day today and got to play outside a lot.

I hope everyone has a great week.

Jess

Annual Taekwondo Camp

This weekend I instructed at our annual Regional Taekwondo Camp. I am one of 3 staff members in charge of Instructor Certification. For this year we had a different format and did the test first thing so we could focus on improving their skills instead of reviewing. It worked very well. We will probably stick with this format because of the great results.

Saturday was a rainy day at camp. There would be sun one minute and then a downpour. This really dropped the temperature and by the time it was time for the campfire it was freezing and windy. We managed a decent fire in the wind and let the campers ask questions of the staff and we told some stories about our time in Taekwondo. Everyone had a great time.

After everyone was sent back to their cabins for lights out some of us were left chatting around the dying fire. Some campers that had been coming for forever talked of their favorite times of past camps and it became obvious that the most impactfull moments were from the staff demo done at midnight. We wake the campers up and have a silent performance with only flashlights lighting the room. The campers do not know this will be happening. While one was not planned Sr Master Babin after hearing the stories felt it was so important that we went to work at 10:30pm and created this years demo. The feedback today from the campers was great. I had all of my students on staff perform a form with me. Two of us did it backwards while three did it correctly. Then one stayed and we did a hybrid of the sixth degree black belt form. Everyone was very impressed.

Unfortunately, Jess was unable to come which was a bummer. It's always something we have enjoyed doing together but she was unable to get off work.

Tired from a long hard weekend but very satisfied with all that was accomplished.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Rainbow Festival and a Coming Out of Sorts

The annual Rainbows Festival was held here in Phoenix October 4th and 5th. This is a type of gay pride event but on a much smaller scale (no parade, less performers, etc.) I am always in charge of getting volunteers to work the booth for the Human Rights Campaign. For those of you that don't know I am on the Board of Governors for this organization. This year I am the gala dinner co-chair, membership co-chair, community events co-chair, and volunteer co-chair. Needless to say this keeps me busy.

This year we were extremely short staffed for the booth. I was going to have to be there all day Sunday with very little help. My mom says to me right before the weekend, "If you don't need me to watch the kids then I'll come help you." Now she has come and walked the festival before so it wasn't a big deal for her to go but to spend the whole day there was a big deal.

We got to the booth around 10am and set up. Then spent until 5pm signing up new members and educating people on voting No on Prop 102 and encouraging them to donate money to Arizona Together, the group fighting the amendment. Proposition 102 is the so called Marriage Amendment, which will write discrimination into the constitution here in Arizona. Arizona was the first and is the only state to ever defeat an anti-gay amendment. However the legislators have decided to ignore the voters and put it back on the ballot. It was a great day and I enjoyed having my mom there. The gay community LOVES interacting with supportive parents. I know it always has an impact on my mom when she hears some of the stories of parents that have disowned their kids or are currently making it hard for them to be who they are. She always has a little bit of support to share with them and gives them hope that their parents can one day be accepting of them.

This leads me to my "coming out" portion. I have been maintaining another blog that I write under the name Lezzymom- more political and opinionated. This blog has been featured on C-Span for some of the political commentary I made on the Democratic and Republican National Convention - which I must say was pretty cool to see your website pop up on screen and be featured followed by a top news blog. It was very cool!

This has led to me being asked to be a contributing writer on another blog called Lez Get Real - A Girl's View on the Gay World. My first article was posted yesterday and was on Prop 102. You can read it here. The best thing was one of the first comments was from a straight man supporting the No Vote and wanting to stop the discrimination.

I have not wanted to overly push my political views here (nudge maybe but not push) so I have kept it separate. However, I am very proud of these blogs and that the writing is being recognized. If you all visit feel free and please leave a comment.