Protestors and Such

After a somewhat heated Twitter exchange that I didn't intend to make heated with a friend over the evacuation of Zuccotti Park, I realized there is just a lot that I don't know. It's also very hard to debate on Twitter, since you don't get a lot of characters to use, so what you learn back from someone else is a sad little snippet of their thoughts as well.

Anyway, if a "park", in this instance a stone/marble/concrete seating area, is privately owned but intended for public use, what rights do the people who use it have? Do they have the right to erect tents? I honestly don't know. I know if someone pitched a tent on my property they better damn well have cleared it with me ahead of time, or I too would kick them out in the middle of the night when they were tired and less likely to offer resistance, especially if they overstayed their welcome and I was about to be sued by business owners over lost revenue. And no, I wouldn't want to let them alert the media and make a circus out of it either.

I wouldn't, however, use pepper spray, but who am I to criticize since I wasn't there, and I don't know what really happened. And I wouldn't be evicting hundreds of people from my land. Was Zuccotti Park peacefully evacuated? Obviously not since pepper spray was involved. It wasn't violent on the scale that some of the Occupy protests have been though. It seems like it was done fairly quickly, but I haven't really paid enough attention to the after-stories to know for sure. There ARE some things I do know:

1) This "park" used to be called Liberty Plaza pre-9/11. People ate lunch there, played chess there, and generally loitered there. There is no grass. There are no bathroom facilities.
2) Brookfield Properties owns Zuccotti Park, not New York City
3) Zuccotti Park is not on Wall Street
4) Many of the "Wall Street" firms that people are protesting are not located downtown
5) NYC has a larger population than some states. The mayor of NYC therefore is a powerful person.
6) The last I knew, the mayor's salary was $1. He is a billionaire and doesn't need the city's money, so he only takes the token $1.
7) A church wouldn't let the protestors sleep on its property either, but people don't seem as upset over it

So teach me some of things I don't know. Seriously. I would like to hear.

Triple booked and nowhere to go.

I have developed this new habit of booking everything on the same day. Sometimes even at overlapping times. Yes, I am triple-booking myself, but also spreading some of them out. Take Friday for instance - I have a class coffee in the morning, a pizza night (well, 4-6 pm) at my house for the neighborhood, and then I'm going out later for drinks. At least those I spread out over time. Next Wednesday I have 3 things scheduled at the same time. I don't think the Kindergarten moms will check to see if I am over my sinus infection, nor will my hairdresser & friend, so I think I had better reschedule the overlapping doctor appointment. If I remember.

Heck, I can't even REMEMBER where I'm going. Twice today I drove right past my turns. I was apparently going home both times, except I wasn't supposed to be going home. I just forgot and was on autopilot. I think my autopilot needs to be re-set, just like that dr. appointment...

It's been awhile...

I notice that the less I write, the more my friends seem too. Perhaps it is all to maintain the balance in the blog world. Much has happened since my last post, I just haven't felt like writing. Swim team practices, swimming lessons, and swim meets in July. Girls tested for Green Belts in Tae Kwon Do in July. I've been to multiple doctors for multiple tests and issues, not all for me. Sami has been sick almost all summer with some random virus, after all.

What else? Favorite radio station taken off the air? Check. Hall bathroom finally finished? Check. Vacation? Check. Earthquake? Check. Hurricane? Check. Storm of locusts? No check. Not yet at least. Same goes for the master bath. Demolition hasn't even started for that one. The hurricane didn't help the timing either, I'm sure.

Sienna is still licking & chewing herself raw. Cat is still peeing in places he's not supposed to. The girls start school next Tuesday, Thomas the following Monday (I. CAN'T. WAIT.).

Mark's birthday is today. We even bought him a present Thursday, so I will even be able to give it to him on time. That NEVER happens. It always sneaks up on me, disguising itself as another August day, part of summer. Then WHAM, it's September and I've missed it. I wonder what calamity I have caused in the universe by being on time with his present and cards. Hmmm...

Weather from Hell?

I swear it's only July, but oof is it hot. Not that you don't know this already. Everyone's a/c is taxed to the maximum. Cafe Villa tonight didn't feel all that cool in the front because of the doors being opened and the huge ovens. Our dog is even feeling it. Between her meds (steroids/antihistamines) for her itchy skin and the weather, the dog just. can't. stop. panting. We keep kicking her out of our bedroom, because we can't even sleep through it. I took her for a walk last night, but not tonight (so perhaps she will pant less?). It was still over 90 degrees at 10:00 after all. MAYBE I will get up early and take her out in the morning. Yeah, that'll happen. Poor thing. And my kids are furious that we didn't go to the pool today and they want to stay all day tomorrow. Excuse me, but I will melt. Or worse. Sigh...

Ah, The Last Day Of School...

...and the kids still won't give me a break. We were not even off the school grounds when Janine started groveling for a play date. Granted, I don't set up a lot of play dates. Sami is such a nightmare when they are at our house, whether the play date is hers or Janine's, that I don't do it very often, not to mention all their activities (hello, Tae Kwon Do is twice a week and right now swim practice is every day). Thomas gets the shaft because his close friends don't live in our town, and I can't drive 20 minutes to a play date for him and still be back in time to get the girls from school. And do NOT expect me to be organized enough to be sending the girls off to play dates at someone else's house on the same day I have one for Thomas elsewhere.

NO. No play date today. The flood of tears opened up - from the 9 year old. Come on. Then I get a hard time because I won't take them to McDonald's. UGH. Give me a break. I can't eat much red meat for the blood condition and my stomach won't take deep fried processed foodstuffs all that often. Again, give me a break. So we go to a nearby diner and lo and behold one of our friends is there. So see, I'm not the worst mom in town, and if I am I have excellent company then.


On the way home, we decide to stop at the nearby school's playground. The kids had a blast, and I think I might have been forgiven for a few moments at least.

Goals, schmoals.

Do remember when you were a kid and people used to ask you what you wanted to be when you grew up? I never had an answer. I never knew what I wanted to be. I even took a test in the guidance office at college, and it was completely inconclusive. There was just nothing that would appeal to me long term. Short term, some things sounded fine. Long term? No. Once I hit the workplace, the question changed to "where do you see yourself in 10 years?" Again, no answer. I have never been one to set goals. Getting through the day seems a little too mundane to be called a goal, although that IS my most frequent goal as the mother of 3 kids.

I am a very practical, down to earth kind of person (I AM a triple Virgo, after all), so my interpretation of the complete lack of goals and aspirations was, quite frankly, that I would be dead by 30. No, I'm really not morbid, but there seriously was just NOTHING there in terms of goals and aspirations. So the answer must be nothing, right? Given the way people drive in parking lots, I figured that would be where I would meet my maker. I never did anything to speed along the process, mind you. Dying by 30 was really not a goal (remember, there WERE no goals).

Well 30 came and went, and so has 40. On reflection, I am a completely different person than I was in my previous decades. In a way, I did die. Missy Aylsworth no longer exists. Instead, the new version, Melissa Cavallone, has emerged. It was a metaphorical passing, not a literal one. OK, fair enough.

One day when I was talking to my mother, she made some comment that made me realize I think just the way she does. I then opened up about my thoughts regarding my lack of goals and vision, and she laughed because I indeed sound like her. Then she pointed out that my cousin Beth is the one who was in an accident in a parking lot, so I escaped that one. (Beth's ankle was broken, I believe, but thankfully she is still with us!)

There is no point to this story. No moral. No revelation. It just is. And I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

And now I know

So now I have the results of the hematology tests, and I know that it isn't all in my head. My fatigue goes beyond being the mother of 3 kids, and now at least someone will listen. And now I know why I basically collapse every weekend. After pushing through the entire week, chasing after and busing around my kids to school, Tae Kwon Do, softball, birthday parties, and music lessons, there is no energy left, no matter how much sleep I get.

Now for the fun part - finding out how often I need to get blood taken to keep it at an optimal level for me. Hmmm. It would be even better if I could have that blood taken without coming so close to passing out...