Halfway Up the Stairs

Celebrate the Child

2009-09-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

Real quick blog post, since I'm running up against a deadline: 9 500-word articles by tomorrow.

From time to time, I go through my music from A to Z, to delete clips I no longer want or to delete copies in my iTunes files. Right now I'm on the C's.

As I've been blogging for the past week, I've had several of those weird coincidences happening to me. As I've said, this kind of thing happens to me quite often, but for some reason, in the past two weeks, it's been occurring more often than normal. Perhaps it's just that I'm noticing it more, or that I'm recording them here. Another one just happened!

Like I said, I'm on the C's. "Castle on a Cloud," from my "Les Mis" soundtrack came up. That song is the child Cosette singing about her fantasies to get through her miserable little life, full of abuse, starvation, and humiliation. The very next song on the queue: Michael Card's "Celebrate the Child," which is about the Christ child.

There can't be two songs more different in their themes and sentiments than those two songs. The first is about how a child has been mistreated and devalued, and the other is the profound value of another child. "Celebrate the Child" implies that because Christ is precious, all children are. "Castle on a Cloud" is about darkness; "Celebrate the Child" is about the Light coming into the world. Christ teaches the opposite of what many characters in "Les Mis" believe and practice: that all life, no matter how weak and lowly, is precious. As Christ himself said, "Suffer the children to come to me."

Brer Rabbit

2009-09-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

Something happened today that proves my point about things happening to me that are connected. Just like the above post, half of it has to do with Maya Angelou.

Today was a writing day. Not only do I have some freelance deadlines looming, I also have progress notes to complete and billing to process for my other job, which I'm currently in the process of leaving so that I can concentrate on the writing. I needed a break, and the kids were home and needed access to the dining room table where I camp out with my laptop. I picked up the book I'm reading right now, Angelou's Heart of a Woman, mentioned in the previous post.

Angelou was recounting her experience getting hired as a journalist in Cairo, in spite of her inexperience in the field. She described it as feeling like she was Brier Rabbit being thrown in the Brier patch: "Please don't do the worst thing to me! Please don't throw me in that Brier patch!" Then she recounted the story.

A few hours later, my husband and I are going through our nightly TV viewing, trying to eat dinner and not kill the children. (If you lived in our house, with two tiresome severely developmentally disabled little kids, you'd understand that statement.) First, we watched the season finale of "Warehouse 13," which is an interesting little sci-fi show that has grown on me throughout the summer. (We also watched the last episode of "The Colony" on the Discovery Channel, another oddly compelling show.)

During a scene towards the end of "Warehouse 13," the protagonists were bringing in the bad guy, and my husband cited (you guessed it!) the same Brier Rabbit story that Angelou references in her book. Before he even finished quoting the same line, I said, "It happened again!" Like I said, that happens to me all the time! Weird, huh?

Cairo

2009-09-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

I was awarded a new writing job, a book review of The Yacoubian Building, by Alaa Al Aswany. I've finished reading it, and have done some preliminary research this morning, before actually starting to write the review. It's an Arab book about life in Cairo. It's a very interesting book, very controversial for its depictions of sexuality and even of homosexuality. It's nice that I'm actually enjoying the task of writing for something, instead of the insipid product descriptions and SEO blog posts that I've been doing so far.

I've also been reading The Heart of a Woman, by Maya Angelou, for her Wikipedia articles. Sometimes it's really weird how the things I'm reading, watching, listening, and thinking about become connected. It's happened so often, I'm no longer surprised about it. This time the connection was Cairo.

The Yacoubian Building is set completely in Cairo. It reminds me of Les Miserables in that it depicts the lives of the poor and working class of Egypt, at the time of the first Gulf War in 1990. (And of course, as I'm writing this, my point is made: a song from the musical "Les Mis" comes on iTunes, which I have on shuffle.) Angelou's book is also set partly in Cairo, but before the Egyptian revolution, in the early 50s, when Westerners were welcome there and when the society was freer than it is now.

The difference in the descriptions of Egyptian life is quite different in both books. Angelou describes her and her husband's opulant lifestyle, while Aswany describes something much different. I'll go into more detail when I have the review completed.

New blog

2009-09-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

I have changed the title and appearance of this blog, to better reflect my change in status. I've decided to change my career focus to freelance writing, and I want to use this blog to talk about that. So instead of this blog focusing on figure skating, like in the past, it now focuses upon my new career and what it's like to be a newbie freelance writer.

That doesn't mean, though, that figure skating is off limits. Actually, nothing is off limits on this blog. That's been what's going on here from the very begining, anyway. For example, in January, I will be attending the US Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, and I will blog about it, just as I did the last time the nationals was in Spokane, in 2007. I will most likely also discuss television, parenting my beautiful developmentally disabled children, and my Catholic faith.

Again, very little has changed about this blog. I'm just changing the title to better reflect what it's been about all along, and to give folks an idea about what I'm about and "how I can fulfill their writing needs."

Blog title

2009-09-17T11:17:00.001-07:00

The title of this blog, "Halfway Up the Stairs" is taken from an A.A. Milne poem that was put to music and performed by the Muppets. I think it perfectly describes my feelings about life, that none of us have "arrived" yet. We've all stopped at that middle stair, where "there isn't other stair quite like it."

Here's a clip of Robin the Frog, singing it on a "Muppets Show" episode, performed by Jerry Nelson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGFR3zz12p0

Of course, the best version of this beautiful song is Jerry Nelson's performance at the 1990 funeral of Jim Henson (5:14 in):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHe39ZTCs-4

And here are the lyrics:

Halfway down the stairs is a stair where I sit.
There isn't any other stair quite like it.
I'm not at the bottom, I'm not at the top.
So this is the stair where I always stop.

Halfway up the stairs isn't up and isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery, it isn't in the town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts run round my head.
It isn't really anywhere, it's somewhere else instead.

Halfway down the stairs is a stair where I sit.
There isn't any other stair quite like it.
I'm not at the bottom, I'm not at the top.
So this is the stair where I always stop.

Christine's resume

2009-09-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

Work Experience
Counseling, 2003-2009
I worked in service coordination and psychosocial rehabiliation, which are Medicaid programs in the state of Idaho, focusing on clients with chronic and persistent mental illnesses. I wrote and developed psychological assessments and action plans.

Sign Language Interpreting, 1986-2000
I translated American Sign Language and English for Deaf and hearing clients in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Eastern Washington areas.

Education
San Francisco State University, 1999 - 2003
M.S., Marriage & Family Counseling and Rehabilitation Counseling/Deafness
Member, Chi Sigma Iota honors society.

California State University, Hayward, 1998 - 1999
4 credits short of a B.A. in psychology

Fuller Theological Seminary, 1994 - 1995
Theology, Christian ministry, church history.

California State University, Northridge, 1986 - 1989
B.A., Deaf Studies/Sign Language Interpreting
ASL studies, history of Deaf people in America, linguistics, Deaf education.

Related Experience
“Experienced and established editor “in Wikipedia (Userpage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Figureskatingfan
Near-native fluency in American Sign Language.
Extensive experience in Internet, webpage development, and research.
Parent of two children with developmental disabilities.

Stanford Memorial Church

2009-09-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

I'm very proud to report that I've reached another milestone in my Wikipedia editing career: my third featured article to be placed on the main page. Stanford Memorial Church, which is a real effort of love on my part, is there today, Sept. 16.

It's a great accomplishment (all three of my FAs have been on the main page), but there are drawbacks to it. The added attention brings out all kinds of people who take issue with the article, even though it's been thoroughly worked over in the process to become a FA. Sometimes the feedback is quite bizarre, as the statement below, which is on the article's talk page. (I can reproduce it here, since everything on Wikipedia is free use.)

A lot of this seems fairly biased... particularly the section about the church's influence. It paints secularism in a bad light by repeatedly quoting people for the church as opposed to the more NPOV [non-point of view] approach of quoting someone painting secularism in a bad light as well as quoting the opposing view. Perhapsif there were more than one sentence with a conflicting view from "this church made stanford, a former bastion of LIBERAL ATHEISM, great!" then this article would be more deserving of being featured.

My first reaction, upon reading this, is to make some sarcastic and snarky comments. I even wrote a response, but I deleted it because I've been advised to refrain from that kind of thing if I want to submit myself for administrator sometime in the future. I can, however, record it here, on my own blog, where I can be as snarky as I want to be.

Huh? Excuse me if I come off as disrespectful, but anyone who knows me well would guffaw at the above statement. First off, perhaps I'm being dense as well (been known to happen!), but I'm not sure what you're saying here, your second sentence in particular. But let me explain why they'd laugh, and why I did after reading it. Anyone who knows me would say, "Former bastion?" 'Cause honey, they'd know I'd say something like, Stanford still is! But who the heck cares, doncha know? My personal opinion matters little, and after all the vetting this article has been through, you're the first person to have caught me in my ultra-conservative, POV [point-of-view]-pushing agenda. Amazing!

I have to run now, so I'll have more about this later.

Blogging struggles

2009-09-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

I've been spending more and more time with the freelance writing thing, to the point that I may change the title and look of this blog to reflect that. The common wisdom these days is that if you're a writer, you need to have a blog. That's been a struggle for me, mostly because if I'm writing all day, the last thing I want to do is blog.

It's not like it's an onerous task, though. One thing I've learned about writing is that it begets more writing. It's like the creative juices are flowing, so finding more things to write about isn't hard. The problem is that I'm the most undisciplined person in the world.

In my research for some of my freelance writing, however, I read some really good advice about blogging. The most successful blogs aren't updated several times a day; instead, they're updated 3-4 times a week. That's certainly manageable, even for me. I need to do what I tell my clients in my other job: work it into my schedule. In other words, make an appointment with myself every other day to spend ten minutes blogging. Eventually, it will become routine for me, just like every other blogger in the universe.

More Wiggles

2009-09-08T17:10:00.000-07:00

This blog is no longer about figure skating (although the new season is due to start soon); it's about The Wiggles!

In that spirit, and because I haven't blogged for a while (I really need to be more disciplined about it), here's the perfect Wiggles-centered blog post. I saw this interview on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcy9AU35X0g

A guy from Comcast is interviewing the guys, and as usual, Anthony takes point and does most of the talking. At one point, the interviewers says something like, "I heard on the internet that you got your name from a Cockroaches song called 'Get Ready to Wiggle'..." And then they all smirked knowingly and Anthony corrected him, saying that the song was called, "Mr. Wiggles Back in Town." Of course that got my little mind going:

"The internet? Could that really be code for Wikipedia? But I wrote that! That's what the New York Times Magazine said!" And I imagined all kinds of things, like "OMG, Anthony must think I'm a total idiot that I got that piece of information wrong. What does he think of me?" Then I calmed myself down by realizing that the guy from the NYT was more of an idiot than me, and I was just using his article as a source for my article.

The interview goes on and brings to light an even worse error in The Wiggles' Wikipedia article, taken again from the same source. (It really makes me doubt the information gained from that article; unfortunately, a lot of the information I used came from it.) The NYT states that the Cockroaches' genre was "catchy roots rock", and Anthony says in the Comcast interview that they played "60s inspired pop music."

Fortunately, I can use the interview and correct the misinformation. It makes me want to write Anthony and ask that he give an interview, either filmed or in print, where he corrects all the incorrect information in their Wikipedia article. This makes me think there's a lot, and that makes me go, "Uh-oh." And that makes me re-think meeting Anthony and telling him I basically wrote that article. Yikes!

My only defense is that everything stated in it is sourced pretty well, and if anything's inaccurate in it, it's not my fault. I wonder if he's gonna care about that. I mean, the way all the guys reacted to the question makes me think it may be a sore spot with them. I suppose another defense would be that I got some things right. In the interview, he says that the only difference between the early Wiggles stuff and "the Cockies" is the lyrics. That's stated very clearly in the Wikipedia article, although I'll probably go back and change the wording to better reflect his.

Hot videos!

2009-07-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

I mentioned Anthony's YouTube fitness videos, so here they are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA6owquGyro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GTCtkm_sto&feature=PlayList&p=B66D57F9BB2DC298&index=4&playnext=3&playnext_from=PL

Actually, doing a search on "Anthony Field Fitz" will get you lots of hot videos!

The Wiggles concert

2009-07-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

After the meet-and-greet, we went and found our seats for the concert. We had really good seats--the fourth row back. It was the first time I had been in the INB center in Spokane, which is next door to the Convention Center. I forgot, in my last post, to mention that before the meet-and-greet, we were early, so we picked up some Sonic (my husband's favorite fast-food; he's disappointed that there isn't one in Moscow), and hung out at Riverside Park for a little while. It was the first time I had been there, too. It's a beautiful place, located next to the Little Spokane River.

As I also mentioned in my previous post, we were told that Anthony had the flu. You wouldn't have known about it from his performance. The only reason I knew was that I was told, and the only reason I noticed was because I was looking for it. You could tell he wasn't completely on his game. This year's tour has a circus theme, so he (and Paul Paddick, as Capt. Feathersord) did lots of gymnastics tricks. It obvious that the tricks took more out of him than usual. His singing was barely affected. The show must go on, you know. It's always impressed me that performers are able to perform like that, even while being sick.

I know everything there is about The Wiggles, so another thing that impressed me about this concert was how they utilized their personal interests and incorporated them into the concert. It's like a little glimpse of their lives. For example, I knew that Anthony and Paul Paddick are both into gymnastics, so it was nice to see them demonstrate it. I had even mentioned the fitness videos out on YouTube to another parent as we were waiting for the Meet-and-Greet. (I also mentioned how "hot" they were.)

At one point during the concert, a screen fell onto the stage. Everyone, including the audience, reacted, and without missing a beat, the dancers picked it up and took it backstage. It was done so professionally, it almost felt like it was part of the show. Fortunately, it didn't hit anyone, so no one got hurt. Another thing that impresses me about performers is that how well they handle things like that, and you know that this kind of thing happens often.

So it was an enjoyable show. I think it's worthwhile to attend a Wiggles concert; you see aspects about them you can't see from just their TV shows and videos. For example, Sam really does have a marvelous voice, as evidenced during his performance of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" That was one of the highlights of the show. They darkened the theater, and then shone lights that shimmered everywhere.

The Wiggles put on a show that's just as enjoyable for parents as it is for the kids. They played all my favorite songs, and it was just as fun watching the kids. Anna actually sat enraptured the entire 90 minutes; George was so excited, he couldn't sit still, and yammered throughout. It was great fun. We had to rush home, since it was also my in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary. This day, as I told my husband, will go down in the annals of the Meyer family history.

The Wiggles meet-and-greet

2009-07-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

So we went to Spokane on Saturday for the much-anticipated Wiggles concert. Well, it was at least well-anticipated by me; remember, the kids have the mind of a two-year old.

They enjoyed it, though. Also remember that like all toddlers, the kids are all about being in the moment, and we gave them quite a moment. The meet-and-greet, which was what I was reallly anticipating, didn't live up to my expectations. Of course, they were probably too high--I was expecting something more like a cocktail party. Instead, they brought us and the other thirty or so adults and children to the foyer of the theatre, right outside the stage door. Two young Aussie guys introduced themselves as "Wiggly dancers", and then informed us that Anthony wasn't going to meet us, since he had the flu and didn't want to pass it along. They did say that Capt. Feathersword would meet us, though.

Then Murray, Jeff, Sam, and the Capt. appeared. A line of chairs were set up, and each group/family were brought to them, we said hi, and then pictures were taken by the dancers. Then they moved us to another part of the room and the guys moved to the next group, while everyone else watched. It took both kids a few minutes, but when they figured out what was happening and that it was The Wiggles, both faces lit up. The expression on their faces was worth it.

My husband, of course, felt it necessary to announce to everyone that when I woke him up that morning, I told him, "You have to wear purple. I'm wearing blue, George is wearing red, and Anna's wearing yellow, so you have to wear purple." Everyone laughed, and I said, "Shows you how much he listens to me!" Leave it up to Jon to embarrass me in front of The Wiggles.

So I didn't get the pictures for their Wikipedia article. I was so star-struck, I didn't even mention it. Murray is much better looking in public, and Sam's hair is so black! It was a nice encounter, and I think the kids enjoyed the moment.

Perpetual toddlerhood

2009-07-10T09:07:00.001-07:00

I've just spent the last three weeks in hell. How's that for dramatic?

It has felt like that, though. For some reason, George's sleep patterns for the last three weeks have been really irratic. He'd wake up every few hours, or sleep very few hours, or wake up at 3am and be up for the rest of the day. Jon and I would switch staying up with him, but it was up to me to handle most of it, and I do not do sleep deprivation very well. For example, the other night, at the tail end of it all, George went to bed very early, at about 5pm, and woke up at 10:30 (which is about my regular bedtime), and since he requires constant supervision, I was up with him the rest of the night. By 3:30am, when Jon woke up to relieve me, I was in despair and weeping because it was the third week of doing it.

Sometimes we forget that both our children are basically toddlers, even though they're chronically much older. I call it "perpetual toddlerhood." That period's called, for good reason, "the terrible twos", and it's probably the most difficult part of parenthood. For most parents, though, they know that sleepless nights, them getting into stuff continually, and the "everything's mine" outlook is temporary. That's not true for us, though; we've been doing it for nine years and there's no end in sight.

Most of the time, it's manageable, because toddlerhood is also full of Sesame Street and The Wiggles and lots of joy. There are times, though, when it's difficult, and being sleep deprived for weeks at at time makes it difficult to handle. It's those times that I get down, become deeply depressed, and feel despair. Despair over not seeing an end to it, and over the seriousness of my kids' disabilities.

If George was typically developing, he'd be able to tell us why he wasn't able to sleep. At the very least we'd be able to tell him to go to his room, shut the door, put on his TV, go on the computer, play his Playstation, and let us sleep. The door to his room is broken, so he'd come out of his room and need constant supervision to ensure his safety. It makes me understand the parents who got into trouble for putting their disabled kids in cages. The solution was to purchase more baby gates and tie them together--not cages, but a way to keep him safe so that we can sleep.

So last night was the second night of this solution, which we know is only temporary, and it's gone well. For some reason, though, it coincided with George's sleep improving. Perhaps he's woken up, seen that he's safe in his room, and gone back to sleep. Perhaps it was just a stage. Who knows? I've had two good nights of sleep, and it's made all the difference in the world.

RIP Michael Jackson

2009-06-25T19:53:00.001-07:00

So I came home this afternoon, a little bummed because I was worried about some clients. I turned on the TV, and there it was, news of Michael Jackson's death. I went, "Oh my god!" and the personal care worker there agreed and asked, "Did you like Michael Jackson?"

My response was, "Well, back in the day..." Thriller was probably the fifth album I ever owned, and I graduated from high school in 1983, a year after it was released and right in the middle of all the attention he got from it. For good reason, since it was a remarkable, ground-breaking record. It's sad to think of what he became, and his death is a tragedy.

Green

2009-06-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

I have changed the color scheme of this blog to green, to show my support of the resistance movement in Iran. I am wearing the color today, as are my children. It's my intention to try and wear green all week, and to put the kids in it as well. It was interesting to see how many people wore green in Mass this morning. Even the priest was wearing green, although I'm not sure if it was intentional.

Oh, and happy Father's Day, too. Jon and I were supposed to go out for lunch today, but I'm not sure if it's gonna happen, since our worker didn't show up this morning. Who knows what's gonna happen. That's the drawback of depending on others when making plans; they often don't happen, especially when the people you depend upon are flaky and young.

Elmo vs Blue

2009-06-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

Just now, my son approached my husband and said, "Blue!" This in spite of the fact that we're right in the middle of watching "Elmo's World" on Sesame Street recorded earlier today. Understand that George loves Blue; it's the first thing he says upon waking up in the morning. If Noggin ever stops showing it, I don't know what we'll do. We may actually have to break down and buy some DVDs.

That reminded me of another instance in which George asked for Blue, earlier in the week. George approached me with the same request, "Blue!" "Elmo's World" was on the TV again, and I was right in the middle of reading some of Kevin Clash's book for the SS article, so I said, "George! You love Blue more than Elmo?! We won't tell Kevin Clash; his feelings would probably be hurt!"

After reading some of the book (the parts available on Google Books, which is why I posted on Twitter that I may have to invest in it), I think I may actually be correct about Clash's feelings about George preferring Blue over his Elmo. Not that I'm criticizing him for that, though. On the other hand, I think it's an accurate estimation of his feelings about the role and about Elmo's influence on young children, which is profound. Looking over my computer at both my kids watching him is evidence of that, at least for me.

Alan Muraoka

2009-06-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

For us adult fans of Sesame Street, the question is always asked: Who is your favorite character on The Show? This is formost in my mind because being burnt out on the History of SS article, I decided to tackle a list this time: List of characters in Sesame Street. Of course, that begs another question: how is that taking a break? I never said I wasn't obsessive.

Anyhoo, if you were to ask me, "Christine, who's your favorite human character on SS?" I'm sure you may expect me to say Gordon, and if you did, you'd be dead wrong. My favorite character on SS is Alan. During my research for The List, I found this image of Alan, made-up for another role. He's greyed-up, but I think he's very attractive here. What a great smile!

I decided that Alan was my favorite human character on The Show after an episode that aired a few years ago. After looking it up in Muppet Wiki, it was Episode 3993, which aired in 2002. Alan and Gordon are playing chess when Big Bird passes, chasing a bouncing box. Alan leaves the game to catch the box to take it to the Mail-It Shop. I gained so much respect for Alan, both as a character and as an actor, that he'd be willing to do something so silly for The Show. It also doesn't help that now that Bob McGrath's as old as dirt, he's currently the best looking male on The Show.

Oh, the box ended up being from Big Bird's granny-bird: that month's installment of the Letter of the Month club, "a joyful jumping J", as the Wiki puts it.

Daily Mass

2009-06-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that I have plenty of "bloggable" experiences; I just need the discipline and self-awareness to think of my experiences in that way. It should be on my list of ways to self-improve: continue the weight loss, exercise, better take care of the housework, get on my paperwork more efficiently, edit for Wikipedia, pursue the writing career, be more tardy, don't overdraw the checking account, blog more.

So I will now relate today's "bloggable" experience. After the kids' workers arrived (they need to add tardiness to their self-improvement list as well), I went over to church. There was a special mass today, and I had arranged that I was going to meet my friend, Sister Mary David, there for the luncheon held following it. Sister and I meet weekly for spiritual direction (she's been such a tremendous help to me, and worth another blog post). I showed up before Mass was over, and had intended to just wait in my car, but changed my mind and went into church.

I'm very glad that I did, since I walked in right at the point where our priest, Father Joe Schmidt, was washing his hands. I missed most of the service, which was a special healing Mass our parish, St. Mary's Church in Moscow, has twice a year. I've never attended one, since I've either always been busy or I didn't think it was for me. What a pleasant surprise--I didn't expect that I'd be able to take Communion today, but I did. I really wish I was able to attend Mass daily, but I've never been able to, due to my kids' schedule. (Mass is at 8am, and the kids get dropped off at school by 8:20, and it just isn't feasible during the summer, either.)

I love it when God surprises me with unexpected gifts, like being able to take him in through the Eucharist. It doesn't happen often, but I appreciate it and am thankful when it does.

I have sold out

2009-06-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed that I've added a new link to the sidebar. I've done that because I received an email from the owner of that blog offering to link mine if I linked hers. I'll do pretty much anything to increase the traffic on this site, doncha know. So please excuse the sell-out, and if you're visiting from there, welcome!

I have a strange life

2009-06-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

I really should blog more. I know that no one reads this, but now that I'm on Twitter, it's probably a good idea to simply force myself. Part of the reason I don't blog often is that not really that much happens to me that I'd call bloggable. Today, though, I had an experience that's definately bloggable.

I attended my son's therapy sessions this afternoon. His speech therapy occured at the therapy center across the street from the hospital in Moscow, and his occupational and physical therapy co-treat was immediately after. (I say "co-treat" because his OT and PT work together during the same appointment.) We met at Friendship Square in downtown Moscow, a few blocks from the hospital on Main Street. Friendship Square is half-way down Main Street right in the center of town; there's a fountain on one side of the street, and a play structure and park benches on the other side. It's kinda a "mini-park".

I sat on one of the benches watching the therapists work with George, and a young woman, probably in her mid-to-late 2os sat next to me as her little boy was playing. He kept talking to her, and she replied, "What? I can't hear what you're saying." His response each time was, "Never mind," and I asked him, "Who are you--Gilda Radner?"

Of course, he looked at me blankly, and I said, "Of course, you don't know who she is." Then I turned to his mom and asked her, "Do you know who Gilda Radner is?" She said, "Uh, no," and I proceeded to explain to her that Gilda Radner was a member of the original cast of "Saturday Night Live" and one of her characters was "Rosanne Rosannadanna" and her catch phrase was "Never mind." It wasn't until I told her that Gilda Radner was married to Gene Wilder that she knew what I was talking about. My reaction to that exchange was, "Oh, I'm so old!"

Later, after therapy was over, George and I went over to listen to two 20-something young men busking in the Square, playing a drum and guitar. George loves anything to do with music, so he had a great time, especially when the drummer let George play his drum. ("Busking" is playing music in public for donations; the only reason I know the term is because of my Wiggles research, since that's something they did at the beginning of their career.) At one point, I said to the musicians, "Do you know anything from The Wiggles?" Of course, they didn't, and I found myself explaining again.

I have such a strange life. I'm basically a 45-year old mom of toddlers, so a lot of the other moms with toddlers I come into contact with, some who are young enough to be my daughters, don't have similar cultural experiences. I go around explaining my life to people all the time. It can get a little tiresome, but it also opens up conversations. It's also a bit lonely, because other than my husband, I don't know anyone who can relate to me.

Racism and rape

2009-02-16T13:44:00.000-08:00

It looks like this blog has become more about my Wikipedia experiences than about figure skating. Perhaps when Worlds happen next month, I'll have more to say. The cool thing is that Worlds is in L.A. this year, so we'll be seeing more of it. As I've previously stated, it looks like I'm going to have to break down and subscribe to IceNetwork next season, so that I don't go to the '10 Nationals unprepared.

At the current time, I'm addressing some reviews about the Caged Bird article. The experience of editing that article has been an emotional journey for me in many ways. As I was re-editing some of the material about racism today (which I have off, at least until later this afternoon), I was struck with how inadequate I am to the task of writing about the subject. It's a bit overwhelming, and humbling. I think I got myself in way over my head once again. This is a characteristic of mine; I tend to take on things that are too big for me to handle.

At one point while addressing the reviewer's comments, I stated, "Who do I think I am anyway, taking on this article?" Here I am, this white woman with very little experience with the topic of racism. No, actually, none at all. No wonder I'm struggling with the writing, and it has more to do with my weaknesses as a writer. It's almost like my experience writing the "Organs" section of Stanford Memorial Church. It was obvious from my first attempts that it was written by a non-organist and someone who knows little about music. My solution in that situation was to elicit help from an editor who's an expert about organs.

Perhaps what would help in this situation would be to elicit an expert about this, a black editor who specializes in this kind of thing. Perhaps I'm already doing what I can, getting help from more experienced and skilled editors to get the prose right. What doesn't help is the fact that the topics (not just racism) in Caged Bird are so complicated, difficult, and emotional. I know it's been emotional for me.

For example, back in September, when I was in the research phase of the development of the article, I sat on a jury for a man accused of child molestation. (We found him guilty.) Now, I was aware of the kind of case going into it, but I thought that it would be a good opportunity to do some research while waiting for jury selection, and I brought one of the books I read for the article. I can't believe that I didn't make the connection between the rape in Caged Bird and the court case, and didn't even think that it may be an inappropriate book to read that day. Well, sure enough, I had to put the book away before the day was through.

My life is like that: I do research about a book that features a child's rape the very same week I experience my worst nightmare and sit on a jury about a child molestation case. It's not the first time a "coincidence" like that has happened to me. Racism, especially the way Maya Angelou describes it, is also emotional, and I'm finding myself having a great deal of difficulty writing about it. In spite of that, though, I'll finish improving the article, since I'm committed to seeing it pass to featured article, even if I am a white girl.

Parallels

2009-01-08T14:55:00.000-08:00

Since it's pointless to blog about Figure Skating (see post below), at least I can still blog about Wikipedia. I wanted to point this out some way, but it didn't seem to fit on my user page, and it certainly doesn't fit on an article talk page.

Two of my main projects in the last several months are I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Sesame Street. After a flurry of editing on Caged Bird before the holidays, it's currently in a holding pattern waiting for another editor to look it over before we get more feedback before it's submitted to become a featured article. My goal is to have it FA sometime this year, the 40th anniversary of the book's publication.

While waiting, I took on the Sesame Street article. Up to this week, I was in the "research phase of article development." Basically, that means reading: G is For Growing, which is a compilation of research done on the show, and the new book, Street Gang, by Michael Davis. The latter book is delightful, and full of all kinds of usable information for the article. I highly recommend it; not only does it cover the history of Sesame Street; it covers the history of television, children's TV in particular.

What I found interesting, though, is that both of my main recent WP projects were both created 40 years ago. (I may not get the Sesame Street article to FA by November, which is the show's anniversary, but I may be able to get History of Sesame Street to that point, since it's more manageable.) The even more interesting thing is that both Sesame Street and Caged Bird were created out of dinner parties.

Jean Ganz Cooney hosted a dinner in 1966, and the discussion of the guests led directly to the creation of the show. In 1968, Maya Angelou attended a dinner party at the home of cartoonist Jules Feiffer and the discussion about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination and their childhoods inspired Angelou to write her autobiography. I don't know what it says about me and my obsessions with the material in both articles, but the parallel is too interesting to let pass by.

The other thing to note has only to do with Sesame Street. In 1969, when the show premiered, I was five years old, the very end of the population the producers and creators wanted to reach. As I read Davis' book, it struck me: all this was done for me! Perhaps that's egocentric, but I became teary-eyed as I realized that. For me, and for my beautiful disabled children, who can recite the alphabet in large part due to the show.

Perhaps Angelou wrote Caged Bird for me as well; so that I can learn about racism the first time I read it as a young college student, and the research I've done this year, the year we elected a black man as President of the United States.

Not so long this time

2009-01-08T14:39:00.001-08:00

So it's been two months since the last time I posted anything on this blog. The reason for that is that as I was attempting to view some of the Grand Prix figure skating events on YouTube, I discovered, to my dismay, that they had been removed. I suspect that U.S. Figure Skating is to blame. Of course, that means that just because I live in the US, I can only watch the sport when it's broadcast by NBC, even though the YouTube videos were originally broadcast on other networks outside the US. At this point, that's only twice a year. As a result, I gave up blogging about figure skating in disgust.

The only hope we American fans have to watch the sport more regularly is that if the ISU gets its act together and make a contract with some US network to broadcast more figure skating. I've seen nothing in the media about it, but with the "downturn" of the sport in the US and the state of the economy worldwide, I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon. It's shameful on so many levels. Of course, ABC is responsible for much of it, for not promoting the sport after they lost the rights to broadcast the Olympics.

The bright spot in all this, at least for me, is that NBC will broadcast the Nationals in a few weeks; perhaps I'll blog more regularly after that. In addition, my marvelous husband bought me tickets to the 2010 Nationals because it's returning to Spokane. The 2007 Nationals, which he also sent me to, were the highlight of my life. Spokane wrote the book on how to host a successful Nationals, so it should be even better. Let's hope that the city doesn't have another winter like this one, with eight feet of snow!

Skate Canada - Pairs short program

2008-11-05T22:21:00.000-08:00

As I expected, there's more to view of Skate Canada. It doesn't look like I was correct about the popularity of figure skating in Canada, though; all you have to do is to look at the audience in these videoes to demonstrate that. According to this story, they only "broke even." It also states the following:

Next year, Skate Canada will be later in November because of scheduling issues during the Olympic season. Because Skate America had difficulties attracting a broadcaster for a date that would put the competition a week earlier, the dates for all Grand Prix events have been shuffled. For next season only, Skate Canada will be the last of the six Grand Prix events, instead of the second. Skate America will be the fifth.

That is so interesting. It's gotta be an NBC thing. I wonder what's going on next year for that to happen. At any rate, here at the videos I found. I'm also including the scores, since not all include them.

Kawaguchi and Smirnov - Eurosport - 65.02
McLaughlin and Brubaker - Eurosport - 60.66
Dube and Davison - Eurosport, French - 60.14

Vise and Trent -Eurosport - 53.94

Dong and Wu - Eurosport, French - 50.84
Brodeur and Mattatall - Eurosport - 50.76
Kirkland and Radford - English - 50.08
Evora and Ladwig - English - 47.04

The power of words

2008-11-04T14:07:00.000-08:00

This morning, while working with a client, I got an insight that for me, doesn't happen very often. I love it when it does happen, though.

The client calls it "our Bible study", but I call it, in the progress notes I have to write, "studying spiritual literature, to help her with her anxiety". I've always been a big believer in using a client's spirituality to help them psychologically. There are plenty of studies that prove that the most emotionally and psychologically healthy people have a healthy spirituality, so I've been known to even use Scripture to help my clients decrease their anxiety.

Without going into too much detail about the client, since confidentiality is involved, we're looking at a Protestant confirmation book my husband has used for teens. This morning, the content focused on creation and on God as creator. We read Genesis 1-2. A couple of things struck me, but the biggest thing was that God spoke, and the universe was created. His words brought creation into being.

Last night, I happened to listen to a Maya Angelou interview on a BBC broadcast, in my on-going project to improve her Wikipedia articles. One of the things Dr. Angelou talked about was her period of muteness after her rape at the age of eight, as described in her I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She said that she was traumatized after she heard that her rapist had been murdered and from that point on, she decided to stop speaking. She said, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone..."

Angelou was more traumatized by the murder than by the actual rape. She believed that "the issuing forth" of her words caused the death of another human being and could imagine them killing others. As a result, she was mute for five years. It struck me, as I was reading and talking about Genesis 2, that Angelou must have read it, even as an eight-year old, because she understood that words have great power. It was through God's words that the universe came into being, and in the mind of a narcissistic child, her words had destructive power.

Of course, Angelou spoke again; she became a teacher, she makes much of her living by public speaking, and recited her poem at Clinton's inauguration. Caged Bird says that she began speaking again when her grandmother's friend, Mrs. Flowers, introduced her to great literature and made her memorize poetry. It was through literature that she found her voice again. So not only does words have the power to destroy; they have the power to restore.

Maya Angelou is one of my heroes.