Author Archives: Jen

About Jen

Jen isn't quite sure when she lost her mind, but it is probably documented here on Meditatio. She blogs because the world needs her snark at all hours of the night... and she probably can't sleep anyway.

Weighing in on the Mosque at Ground Zero

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There are two mosques down the hill from my in-laws on opposite sides of a busy street. One is Shi’a and one is Sunni. Both have schools and cultural centers. (It was actually interesting when the Sunni one held a car wash because the 13 year old girls advertising it were jumping up and down in their head scarves, long-sleeves, leggings, and flip-flops while across the street some middle school cheerleaders were holding a car wash of their own and jumping up and down in tank tops, shorts, and flip-flops.) Anyway, both are model neighbors and totally chill with the fact that there are other people who don’t share their beliefs around.

Enter the sitch at Ground Zero. While it’s a bit of a different situation because of the events of 9/11, the Muslims using the building have been using that space for awhile now. They were interviewing a couple Christian pastors who know the imam and they’ve said that he’s down-to-earth and totally into blending with the community. His wife is very chill and I feel like it’s a different situation than it would be if he was anti-American and anti-Western. It’s honestly no different than building a JCC or a Christian church in the building.

I’m really a bit angry at a lot of the protestors that are fighting the building of a mosque. If you’re going to blame all Muslims for 9/11, then you should blame all Christians for the shooting of abortion doctors or all Catholics for the abuse scandal. Nineteen people do not represent a whole religion. Adherents of a religion only know what they are taught and I think at this point, it would be better to allow a mosque with a mentally-balanced imam to show what Islam truly is and what it isn’t.

And seriously, I have been treated better and shown more hospitality by Muslims at mosques I’ve visited than I have by my fellow Christians. I’d rather encourage their attitude than the attitude of my less hospitable brethren.

Homeschooling?

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A few nights ago as I was trying to get Daniel back to sleep, I was trying to get myself back to sleep by planning out how I’d homeschool Daniel for kindergarten. The reason I’d thought about it is that Daniel is developmentally delayed and I was having OMG-is-he-going-to-have-learning-problems?!?!?!? worries. Jon and his sister Joanna were both homeschooled and turned out fine and I was pondering the idea of just homeschooling him for kindergarten or something so he could learn to read, learn his letters, learn his numbers, learn basic addition, etc.

It might be all the “Your Baby Can Read” commercials that bombard us on Qubo but I do worry about Daniel being ready for school, especially since I have no idea where we’ll be once he hits school and what will be available to him as far as preschool and all that.

I was having visions of creating math flashcards out of 3×5 cards, some kind of poster with the letters of the alphabet, and just a bunch of things. We’ve got a pretty decent amount of childrens’ books thanks to my mother-in-law who gave me a huge gift certificate to Amazon.Com for that purpose last year.

For my readers who homeschool your kids: why did you decide to do so and what do you use? There’s no definite plan to homeschool Daniel but I’d love to know what’s out there.

My Thoughts on Prop 8 Being Overturned

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I wouldn’t be a proper Californian blogger if I didn’t bring up Prop 8 being overturned.

My thoughts: I could honestly care less.

I know, I know. I’m a conservative Christian and I’m not flipping out about how it’s an abomination and all that. Thing is… it doesn’t change my life either way. It’s not like Jon is going to have to start performing same-sex unions (it’s one of those things in our denomination where it’s up to the pastor and the church) and it’s honestly not harming anything. Will I go to the weddings of my gay friends? Probably not but I also haven’t managed to attend the weddings of most of my straight friends either.

The other thing: I’ve got four burners on which I can deal with things. They’re being taken up right now with Daniel, Jon, job-hunting, and finances. (My father-in-law gets put on when one of the last two can be taken off and stirred.) I don’t have the mental and emotional energy to put toward being righteously indignant about this.

One of my friends who is pissed over Prop 8 being overturned asked on Facebook about “what one does when something one has voted for is thrown out”. I really had to force myself not to tell her to ask those who were disenfranchised under our ex-president about that.

So Awful That It Was Amazing

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I had a rheumatologist appointment today and got to the office about 5 minutes early. I signed in and waited for them to call me and when they did, I got a receptionist whose rudeness quotient was second only to the former nurse of my doctor in Montana.

Receptionist: You’re not on the schedule. I don’t have you scheduled for a follow-up appointment at all. You’ll have to re-schedule because Dr. Rheumy is double-booked and I *HIGHLY* doubt he’ll want to see you today.
Me: This is interesting because I scheduled the appointment with you when I was in here three weeks ago.
Receptionist: Do you have an appointment card?
Me: *pulls the card from my wallet* Why yes, I do have one.
Receptionist: *sullenly* Well, I still doubt he’ll want to see you today. You’ll probably have to re-schedule but I’ll go check.

I went and sat down, mentally trying to figure out how I was going to re-schedule if they wanted me tomorrow because I’d have to find someone to watch Daniel. I’d been sitting there for about 5 minutes when I heard my name called.

Nurse: Jennifer K-M?

I went back with her and told her that I was surprised given the exchange with the receptionist. The nurse’s reply: “Somebody screwed up and they’re seeing you because you had the card that proved that you *DID* have the appointment.”

After seeing Dr. Rheumy, I went out to make a follow-up appointment and got Evil Receptionist again. She scheduled me and told me to hold on to the card because “if something gets screwed up, he’ll work you in if you have the card.” I smiled politely and left.

OK… this is the same office staff that has cut me off when they’ve put me on hold, lost my faxed lab work TWICE, and now this. I think I would have been fired within three days if I’d done this when I worked as a receptionist. Seriously, these people are so awful and incompetent that it’s quite amazing.

New Tricks

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Daniel has been in physical therapy to help with developmental delays and it’s started paying off. He can sit (if he wants to) Indian-style with very little help and we discovered yesterday that he’ll go forward, weight-bear on his feet, transfer his weight to the coffee table, and reach for things if he’s sitting on our laps on the floor. This latest trick is really good news because it’s a step toward walking.

Crawling-wise, he’s definitely creeping and hopefully should be crawling in the next couple weeks. We need to find a babygate wide enough to span the space in the kitchen to protect the cats’ litterboxes and food from him.