Last days

When I picked Jesse up from school today, on his LAST day of school, I patted him on the shoulder and said, “You did it. You survived second grade.” That praise was pretty much important to him, because he’s had quite a lot going on this year at school. There were even times the possibility of transferring him to another school came up. But, my son comes from a long line of survivors. He’s got survivor blood in him! In the end, he didn’t back down and he didn’t give up. Despite the challenges, bullies and misunderstandings he endured in second grade, he made it til the very end.

Later in the day, it was my daughter, Jennifer’s, turn to get a pat on the shoulder. To her I said: “You did it! You survived Junior High!”

That’s right. Today was her 8th grade graduation. Her very last day as a middle school student!

Unfortunately, earlier this week, there was a scheduling conflict. Jesse’s baseball team had their team pictures today, around the time of the graduation ceremony! I tried to see if a change could be made but it could not. What they could do is schedule the pictures of Jesse for another day, but he wouldn’t be in the team picture. I thought he’d feel bad if he was left out of the team picture, so my husband and I discussed options. In the end, he took Jennifer to her graduation and I took Jesse to his team pictures.

We ended up getting to the ceremony about 40 minutes late. Jennifer was one of three students giving a speech and try as I might to get there quickly, we missed her speech. Jesse was so upset about missing this that he cried. But my husband had recorded it so at least we have that.

So Jennifer graduated from Junior High tonight. I am so proud of her! She has certainly had a lot of ups and downs during her middle school years. So many milestones and major events. So many changes and memories. I am sure it will last her a lifetime. I hope she’ll be able to keep in touch with her middle school friends as she moves on into high school.

Congratulations, Jennifer! We are very proud of you and wish you the best in high school. Keep on being the awesome you that you are!

Letting the haters hate

Earlier this morning, I was doing something that is part of my “morning activities”: I was on Pinterest. So there I was just innocently pinning away and then I started to experience trouble pinning some things. Apparently, some people who I don’t know have blocked me on Pinterest. At first, I joked about it. Seriously, I had a good laugh. “I’m so evil!” I chortled. But I started to wonder why these people blocked me. I didn’t know them and weren’t following them or anything. I guess new people who join Pinterest get an email telling them, “Welcome to Pinterest! Be sure to block Dawn Wilson!” LOL

But, ya know, the whole blocking thing on Pinterest really doesn’t bother me. Like I said, it makes me laugh. I didn’t do anything to these people. I wasn’t mean to them. I didn’t send them spam or anything. So, I dunno. Whateva.

But it doesn’t hurt me. And if those people think it hurts me, then they really need to get a life!

That got me to thinking: There are other things people do on the Internet – specifically, social media – that can be seen as bullying or as being negative. Now, getting your ass torn out in a comment war is one thing. That is not cool. But the whole blocking on Pinterest, unfriending on Facebook and tagging people on Twitter with negative tweets can be used as a way of bullying and hurting others.

Me, I don’t give a shit.

Seriously, haters gonna hate! And you know what? I don’t care. Let me rephrase that: I. Don’t. Care.

I am too busy living my life and doing my own thing to give a flying fuck about people on the Internet deciding to put me on their shit list. Especially when it comes to people I don’t know.

You wanna block me on Pinterest for no reason? Go right ahead!

You wanna unfriend me on Facebook because I hurt your mom’s feelings? Fine!

You wanna point and laugh at my small number of followers on Twitter and tell everybody “don’t buy her books because she hurt me” or “don’t buy her books because she’s a two-faced liar” or “don’t buy her books because she worships the devil”? Have at it!

Meanwhile, I’m gonna be over here not giving a crap!

I am going to continue doing my own thing, just as I have always done my own thing. I will continue to write books because I want to write books. I will continue to pin things on Pinterest because I want to pin things on Pinterest. I will continue to be active on Twitter and Facebook because I WANT to be active on Twiter and Facebook.

And I REALLY don’t care if that bothers someone!

I have the right to live my life. Deal with it.

If people are all gonna be a bunch of crybabies or whiners or haters on the Internet because of something I did or said or shared or…WHATEVER then they can either take it up with me personally and we can work that out or they can waste their time and their life by hating on me and doing silly shit thinking it will hurt MY feelings. And if they choose the latter, then I guess they REALLY need to have more drama in their lives. I guess they HAVE to have something to cry into their pillows about. I guess they want that one Horrible Thing from the past to hold against someone for the rest of their lives. That’s too bad, but I’m not going to disappear because of it.

I am still here. I am still doing my own thing. And regardless of what kind of crap I have to take from people on the Internet, I will ALWAYS be here. I will NOT go away. I will not kill myself over their petty shit. I will not bury myself into a hole and hope the world forgets my shame.

Nope. I’m not going anywhere. I write what I want to write. I don’t do shit to get people’s attention or to get on someone’s nerves or to intentionally hurt another person. (Gotta keep in mind all the pussies out there who can’t take a joke!!) I’m not doing stuff to make up for anything because if I HAVE hurt someone’s feelings AND they actually take the time to talk to me about it instead of holding a grudge FOREVER and spreading hate, then it’s all good. I AM willing to work things out with people. I AM willing to acknowledge if I made a mistake, apologize and make things right with people.

But if instead they choose to do things on the Internet like blocking me or unfriending me or whatever, then they are just wasting their time. None of that shit hurts me at all. So you go right ahead and keep doing your passive-aggressive bullying tactics thinking it’ll make me fall apart into a million pieces. You go right ahead! It’s not going to work! I am going to continue living my life and doing my own thing! And none of that negativity coming from the haters is gonna stop me at all.

More school incidents

This evening, I had Jennifer pleading to me to email her teacher about something that happened today at school. I was okay about doing that, but I also had to email a reply to Jesse's teacher, because something had happened to him at school, too, that I had to take care of as well. Yep, both kids had stuff going on at school I had to get involved with.

I did email Jen’s teacher this evening, as well as the school’s registrar about something else that happened today. (Ack! Why does it always have to be more than one thing??!!) But I also emailed Jesse’s teacher, too. 

To start off with, Jesse was bullied by a boy in his class yesterday. The kid punched Jesse in the chest! We were really upset about this, but when he told me that his teacher did nothing after he told her about it, I thought, That doesn’t sound right. Bullying is a Big Deal and I firmly believe any student who bullies another, let alone by using violence, should be disciplined. (Bullying is a touchy subject for me, because I’ve been bullied for years in the past.) So I contacted his teacher via email and she explained the situation. We talked with Jesse again this evening and his teacher is going to get on this tomorrow when he gets to school.

Then there was what happened with Jennifer. First, her progress report arrived by mail today and I almost fainted when I saw she got an “F” in Math. OMG!! I freaked. And I was livid, too. Her dad was also upset. Later he talked with Jennifer about it, and I noticed Jennifer saying she was trying to do the work and that she got confused. Jennifer is in Advanced Math and I was starting to think maybe she should not be in Advanced Math anymore. I talked with my husband about that idea and he talked to Jennifer but she doesn’t want to change her Math class. Well, she logged in at the school website later and, actually, her grade for Math was a B+. We were confused about that and her dad suggested she check in with the school to confirm that is indeed her grade.

The other thing I had to email her school about was because a teacher had taken something from her in class and had not given it back. Jennifer is creating a piece of art for a friend at school and she was showing it to him in class to ask him if the color was okay. The teacher saw this and had Jennifer hand it over. She was really upset about that because she has worked on it for 3 days. I told Jen I’d email the teacher but, at the same time, I reminded her that that was what teachers DO! Save that stuff for AFTER or BEFORE the class. Not during class. So I sent that email off tonight, as well.

I only hope both of those things get resolved and I also hope both kids learned something from their incidents.

In a pinch

Happy St. Patrick's Day! The day we get to wear green, drink green beer and eat corned beef!

But if you really want to be a traditionalist today, don't pinch anyone not wearing green, don't drink any alcohol and don't eat corned beef. Eat ham instead.

This is what I uncovered after something happened at Jennifer's school. A painful childhood memory of St. Patrick's Day had me going nuts in trying to find clothes for Jennifer to wear to school today that had green on them. Then she enlightened me with a rule her school has enacted: No pinching on St. Patrick's Day. If any of the kids pinch someone for not wearing green, they got into trouble. (The above link shares the details.)

This got me curious. I started to question society's tampering with a tradition. Then I had to ask myself: Is it REALLY a tradition to pinch someone for not wearing green on St. Patrick's Day?

I'm a research nut, so of course I hit the Internet to find out. I zeroed in on all the usual suspects -- Wikipedia, Yahoo! and Associated Content -- then started reading message board forums, blog posts and assorted Irish-related web sites. Apparently, pinching IS NOT a traditional St. Patrick's Day activity! More surprising, it's not something practiced in the ENTIRE United States! I was surprised to come across people located in different states who were confused about the whole pinching thing and said that it never happened where they went to school. (There are others on the above link echoing that comment.)

As it turns out, the tradition of pinching someone for not wearing green on St. Patrick's Day was started by schoolchildren, who pinched someone who forgot to wear green on that day. Even though green is not a popular color in Ireland, green is associated with Ireland because it is a country that is, well, "green." They call Ireland "the Emerald Isle" just because of the fact that it's very, very green year-round. Another argument promoting this custom is that the green color is on the flag (which actually heralds back to their old flag when Ireland was not free).

One other legend is that, back in the day, Irish settlers pinched their misbehaving children

So it's not a St. Patrick's Day tradition to pinch someone for not wearing green. What a relief! It's a school-oriented tradition. (Gee, not surprising. It would naturally happen that a painful tradition would emerge in a place known for having bullies.)

And here's another factoid for you trivia buffs: Long ago, the Protestants in Ireland started wearing orange as a means of protest. (Apparently, the Protestants love to protest in their spare time. LOL) So orange was put on the Irish flag in recognition of their Protestant countrymen. See "Wearing of green"

While you're there, note that the traditional St. Patrick's Day color was not green, but BLUE! I like blue better. It's my favorite color!

But, heck, blue, green or orange -- I think any of those three colors should be just fine to wear on St. Patrick's Day without penalty! Some people just wear a shamrock pin, which in my opinion should be just as good if you can't wear any green. That's the next best thing to recognizing Ireland, aye?

Now, as to the corned beef: One forum I visited had someone on there saying that corned beef is NOT a traditional Irish stipend on St. Patrick's Day. Actually, they eat ham.

Here is a humorous pinching poem I came across on AC.

But, sometimes, this pinching business isn't funny at all. As I shared, kids who normally teased me at school because of my appearance took advantage of that tradition and pinched me REALLY HARD. One brother-in-law who bullied me for years said the green on my shirt "wasn't green enough" and left bruises where he pinched me.

The pinching thing on St. Patrick's Day can get so out of hand, someone even posted this article about defensive measures you can take at work.

And we can at least take solace in the fact that a REAL pinch isn't something as painful as this:



As to us? We don't pinch each other for not wearing green. We all think it's kind of stupid and just shrug it off if someone isn't wearing green.

But you can bet we all still wear green, anyway.

One final note: If you're going to drink, please don't drive!