To be a kid again

We've been taking our daughter on more & more walks recently. Its really nice to get outside & get her accustomed to the outside world. She just loves it outside.

Anyways, Saturday afternoon, probably about 6:30, 7:00 p.m. we're walking back home from our walk (if you couldn't guess). There's i think 4 or 5 kids playing outside this apartment, all around the ages of i'd say 6-9 years old. As we're walking, one looks at us, straightens his arms out in front of him, points down and says, "Don't look."

I am normally a very curious person, but when an 8 year old tells me not to look, something about it told me to listen to him.

As he sits there, shaking his head back & forth, saying "don't look" i finally look and see a pile of rocks - decent sized ones, about the size of a gallon of milk. He continues to say, "Look, there's a dead bird."

I thought he didn't want us to look??? Hmm, kids are strange.

And he didn't lie, underneath the rocks was a dead bird, crushed. We walk slower as he follows us explaining how they found it and were throwing rocks on it. One of his friends threw a rock on it just right & its guts went all over one of his other friends. He then said that friend went home after that.....

...yeah i'd go home if a bird's guts were just propelled at me. Doesn't seem like much fun!

Anyways, he goes back to his prized possession, and stands there. As we walk by the door of this apartment, another little boy rushes outside w/ a ghetto bird feeder. You know, the one's you make as a kid - pinecone, peanut-butter, bird seed and string? Yup. One of those.

Anyways, that's irrelevant to what happens. This kid rushes outside, stops & points at a boulder in front of him, and with the straightest face possible he states, "this is the biggest rock in our yard."

At first, me and Megan are so confused at what happened. But about 2 seconds later we burst into laughter, and continue laughing at this for the next 30 seconds or so. It was hilarious! I wihs i had it on video, the kids expression was priceless.

Granted me & Megan were a little high from smoking earlier, but this was still the funniest thing to me at the time.



All that got me thinking...did i do stuff like that when i was a kid? Yeah, i'm only 22, so it wasn't THAT long ago, but still. I've come a long way since the younger days, when i used to look up curse words in my dictionary (lyrical quote! Guess who).

I used to set ants/bugs on fire, play in my sandbox w/ army men & trucks, climb trees, you know all the kid things to do. Sadly i even tried my first cigarette at around age 8.

Seeing those kids made me want to go back in time and be a kid again. To be that happy. To find joy in the littlest things, like a dead bird, or the biggest rock in your yard. I think it would be awesome. Like if you could go back with the same mind-frame you had now, would you?

Think about it...To be ten years old again (or younger), you don't have any worries at all besides going to school & listening to your parents. You don't care if people think you're weird or others judging you, you don't worry about getting hurt, you just live life to the fullest while you still can. The funny thing is, kid's don't realize that this part of life doesn't last long. Yet they are able to be the happiest beings.
And those are the most important times in your life, i believe. When you're able to the most insignificant things and find so much joy in them. Makes me jealous.

But then i snap out of it and realize how lucky i am. I have a beautiful girl that i will someday marry, a gorgeous & smart little girl who will be a year in 3 months already, a good, secure job, and a place to live.

Sometimes it takes the littlest thing to make you realize how great your life is. This made me feel like a kid again.

Weekend at KC's

The start of another fun-filled work week. Isn't it what we all look forward to? Or is that the weekend? Eh, who knows anymore, it all seems to blend together for me now.

Guess that's part of being a parent now. Well you know what, I'm perfectly fine with it.

Of course i LOVE sleep almost more than anything (yes, even sex), but i gotta say, nothing is more rewarding than waking up on a Sunday earlier than you do during the work week. It gave us so much time to spend with Tori, and run errands, and everything. It was great.

Yesterday i looked in my wallet and found that i had 2 Hot Topic gift cards from God knows when - both for 25 bucks. Score.

Only thing is there's not that much stuff @ Hot Topic I'd buy anymore. Other than Cd's, earrings/gauges, and the occasional shirt. So yesterday me, Megan & Tori went to the mall to find stuff.

I ended up buying a sick Born of Osiris shirt, a black dress/shirt w/ a blue ribbon & buttons for Megan, and 2 shirts for Tori - one that says "There's a party in my tummy" with a bunch of candy & food inside a drawn-out stomach, and the other says "My dad can beat up your dad" with a picture of Darth Vader on it. Yeah, its pretty sick. Oh and we got Tori a little rubber keychain to chew on because we neglected to bring her binky with us.

On Saturday, we went to the doctor's office for Tori's scheduled appointment. Turns out she is at 10% height. 50% would be the average height, so she is just a liiiiittle short for her age, haha. Other than that, she's all healthy and average or above average in all other stages of development. That makes me very happy. She's got 2 bottom teeth in & 2 more coming in on top. She said "mama" last week, and said "dada" yesterday, so she's growin so fast!

I'm also convinced that we have the more adorable daughter in the world. The nurse who took all her vitals & shit beforehand said how beautiful she was, then we went to get her weight. Following that, she turns to another nurse & said, "Michelle, look at this little girl's eyes, she's gorgeous!" The nurse turns and says, "Oh, that's Tori! She's a cutie."

I'm just like, "yeah, that's our kid. She came from us. She got her looks from us. Represent!"


Not really, but it made me feel good. I love my little girl.

Save Our Society?

There's a group called Save Our Society. Their mission is as follows:

"Save Our Society From Drugs (S.O.S.) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization committed to establishing, encouraging and enabling drug laws and drug policies that reduce illegal drug use and abuse, drug-related injury and death. Among other endeavors, S.O.S. has actively opposed national and state ballot initiatives and legislative measures that would legalize marijuana as a so-called medicine and would create new constitutional rights for the exclusive benefit of illicit drug offenders."

Now, from my experience, a group like this is going to be close-minded, ignorant, or not willing to listen to the opposing sides argument. I, however, would love to talk to them. So i tried e-mailing them at the address on their site.

And guess what?? It doesn't work! I get a message saying, "
The following organization rejected your message: [216.134.220.7]"

Does that seem fair to you? I don't think it is. This is what my e-mail said.




Hello there. I saw on your group's website that you claim that you want to provide education to the public on how pushers(dealers) want MJ legalized? You realize that if this were the case, those "pushers" would be out of work? So no, dealers would not want it to be legalized. Neither would major crop growers. The government would take over the distribution and major cultivation of marijuana, leaving not only the mexican drug cartels out of work, but also the drug dealers that "run the streets" in our hometowns. I smoke marijuana. I have a full-time job at a promising company. I have an 8 month old daughter and a beautiful fiance. I treat marijuana like its a beer. After work, i spend time with my family - playing with my daughter, feeding her, reading the mail, having dinner at the table with my fiance, and then giving our daughter a bath & laying her down for bed. After cleaning up everything around the house, me and my girl will load a bowl in my pipe and go on the patio and smoke. Am i hurting anyone doing this? If so, how? How is this different than smoking a cigarette which has over 4000 chemicals in it. 4000?! And its legal? That blows my mind how something so dangerous and EXTREMELY deadly can be legal. I smoke cigarettes too. I'm not proud of it one bit. I wish i could quit, but its not that easy. I never have cravings for marijuana. I just enjoy relaxing after a hard days work. I think that smoking a bowl and still being clear minded and relaxed is much better than someone coming home from a rough day of work, downing half a bottle of rum, and fighting with their spouse. Can you agree with me there at least?

There's so many scientific studies and proof of the GOOD that MJ can do. I can honestly say that yes, marijuana, just like alcohol, can be abused. It can be dangerous at a young age. Everyone reacts different to things. One person could get very violent after a few shots of whiskey. While another might just sit and talk about things with a close friend. Someone can smoke a bowl and feel paranoid, or dizzy. Someone else can smoke it and just feel relaxed and uplifed almost. Everything has variables. Is it that hard to believe that marijuana is no different than alcohol or tobacco? If you were around for prohibition of alcohol, would you be for it or against it?

I don't want to say much more because i have a feeling that the people in this group are going to be somewhat close-minded or stubborn. I, however, can see things from both sides of the argument. I see reasons for MJ to not be legalized. I can see reasons for it to be legalized. I have educated myself on the uses of marijuana and the history of marijuana. I suggest you do the same. Thank you for your time.

http://www.illuminati-news.com/marijuana-conspiracy.htm

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9077214414651731007

http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5441


i just wanted to talk to someone about this. See what their reasons were for wanting to not legalize MJ. I have reasons to not do it, also. But overall, the "good" weigh out the "bads" when it comes to reasons for legalization.

Guess its harder to talk to someone thats opposed to legalization than i thought. I wonder why....could they know of all the truth about MJ? Guess i'll never know

i guess this is nice of our neighbor?

Sex is a natual thing in life. Everyone does it. Well, pretty much everybody. Not every female is super loud in the sack though.

Megan is pretty damn loud, though.

At my old house when i/we were living with a couple of my friends, she used to wake them up in their sleep all the time. My friend broke the hallway light because he threw his shoe down the hallway cuz she was being loud.

Don't take me wrong, i like my girl to be vocal, lol. This incident was kinda funny though.

So Tuesday, i believe it was, i got home from work, and we played with tori for a little bit. But then we laid her down for a nap around 5:30 or so. Me and Megan decided to have a little fun. And in the midst of our 4-foot shuffle, as i like to call it, we hear a loud ass banging noise that sounded like it came from the wall separating us and our neighbors. This has happened before, and it seems to be the guy next to us, but it was never this loud. This makes me stop for a second, and it throws me off. No more sex.

Anyways, the point of that is, that last night me, Megan, and a friend of mine were blazing, and randomly at 11 p.m. there's a knock at our door. Megan gets up to get it, cuz i was in the kitchen & didn't hear it. Turns out it was the girl from the apt. below us. She came up to apologize for banging on the ceiling a few days ago, lol. Apparently she did that because she had her daughter there, and she didn't want her daughter to listen to what was basically hardcore porn. Lol.

This was kind of awkward for megan. Think of how weird that would be to be sitting in your apartment, and suddenly you hear moaning. Then screaming. You look over and your daughter is there with a confused look on her face. I'd do the same thing! Lol. We were blazed so we had a good laugh, cracked jokes about it & everything. Talkin about how the neighbors are gonna pitch in to buy megan a gag-ball. Or they'll all just have air horns & sound em off any time they hear Megan.

The thing is, they don't bang on the wall every time. So does that mean that sometimes the guy next door enjoys it?? We ponder this sometimes when we're out on our patio smoking a cigarette. Like, what if some night, the guys really stressed out and gets off to us having sex? That would be kind of weird. But at the same time, i don't care. Lol. As long as he's not straight up jerking it while lookin at megan, he can get off to us getting off if he wants.

But i doubt that really happens.

Its things like that that will pop up in conversation when you're at our place.

blogging

what the hell is the point of it? Only 2 people "read" mine. Can you even search for other blogs?

Cuz i can't figure out how to

Marijuana can cure cancer, scientists say

http://digg.com/d1nsND

lots of science "mumbo-jumbo" in there, so unless you know you're shit, its gonna be hard to understand, lol. (I don't know my shit)

i skimmed through it, and found a paragraph that sums it up quite nicely

"We next investigated whether activation of ER stress is involved in the induction of autophagy in response to cannabinoid treatment of cancer cells. We have previously shown that THC-induced accumulation of de novo–synthesized ceramide, an event that occurs in the ER, leads to upregulation of the stress-regulated protein p8 and its ER stress–related downstream targets, ATF4, CHOP, and TRB3, to induce cancer cell death "



Amazing what one plant can do.

when all hope is lost

I just finished reading a terrible story about a 17 year old boy in Fairfax County, VA. Its about a boy who attends a "Zero Tolerance" school, in a country where if anyone is found in possession of marijuana on school grounds, that automatic suspension and a recommendation of expulsion is required.
"There's no discretion at the school level," says Paul Regnier, spokesman for the system. "Virginia law requires that if there's possession of marijuana on school grounds, the student must be expelled unless there are special circumstances."

Here's some of the article. Found here: "http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/04/AR2009040402596.html"

Josh Anderson had just finished four homework assignments. He did his laundry. He watched TV with his mother -- "House," which he had Tivo'd for viewing that night. He played with the dogs. Then, at his mom's urging, he went up to bed. It was 12:30, and the next day, March 19, was a big one: Josh was scheduled for a hearing that probably would end with his expulsion from the Fairfax County school system.
The Andersons weren't blind to what got Josh into this pickle. He had been caught leaving campus, going to Taco Bell with a friend. When the boys returned to South Lakes High in Reston, an assistant principal confronted them in the parking lot, smelled marijuana and had the car searched. This was the second time in two years that Josh, a junior, had been found with pot.
"I really have been working hard on this," Josh wrote to the hearing officers. "I can't believe I'm putting my parents through this now. I can't believe how selfish and stupid I've been. . . . I'm honestly going to try my hardest to fix this."
The Andersons were told that Josh would be barred from any regular Fairfax high school and might be tossed out of the system entirely. His parents were looking into private schools or moving.

But there would be no hearing, no new school, no more visits from college football coaches asking about Josh's talents.

When Sue Anderson went into her son's room the next morning, he was dead. Without a word to his girlfriend, parents, psychologist, coach or teachers, Josh Anderson, 17, had killed himself.
He left a note, just two lines. "Why does it have to be like this?" And, to his girlfriend, "I love you."



They make some good points in here. His parents believe that the Zero-Tolerance mentality contradicts with the goals of helping an immature adolescent. Throwing them out of the schools isn't going to help better somebody if they're having problems/troubles.

Yes, he shouldn't have brought it to school. That's obvious. But Regardless, because of their policies and how it affected Josh, he felt so terrible for wronging his parents. When in all reality, all he had to do was maybe be lectured by someone - talk to a psycologist, or something. Not kicked out of school. Suspended, yes. Expelled? No. The trauma of knowing he was going to be expelled must have put so much weight on his shoulders, knowing how much it would hurt his parents, it must have just brought him to the edge, and gave him a nudge. Had their policies been more lenient, i'm sure he wouldn't have felt the need to committ suicide. I'm sure that the media will try and turn this into a form of "yellow journalism" or just do what i like to call, as the "one, two, switcheroo" on the story, claiming that Josh's marijuana use pushed him to the brink of insanity, ending in his death. Or whatever the media really thinks bud does to people.

Whatever. Shit like this makes me so mad, and makes me so sad for the families and friends. It makes me wish i did not live in such an uptight zero-tolerance state. You get caught with ANY bud here (states as "less than 2 lbs), there's the possiblity of going to jail from 6 months to a year & a half. Possibly even for just having a joint.

Of course thats not guaranteed. A friend of mine got caught with a joint on campus in his cd case. He was not waving it around, showing it off. He was sitting there, and the teacher walked up & grabbed his cd case and started going through it. Low & behold a joint fell out. And what happened to my friend? Expelled from our school, and had probation for i believe 6 months. Possibly longer. He had a few fines to pay too. All for just having a joint on him. Had he have had, say, a pack of cigarettes on him (which im sure he did), they would've just thrown him away. Or even booze. He would've just gotten suspended im sure. But nope. Since its a drug, they had to get rid of him and the drug asap! As if half the school wasn't on drugs to begin with. I went to a somewhat charter school w/ around 300 kids. The school was dedicated to arta & academics. Painting, music, dance, photography, fashion, sculpting, etc. One (black, i might add) kid found with a joint and he's immediately thrown out - no questions asked.

Now, do you think that These situations are being handled appropriately? Or accordingly? I can understand someone caught with an ounce in their backpack and someone saying he was selling. But come on. There has to be a line drawn somewhere.


This quote is from Fairfax School Board member Jane Strauss. "The goal, Strauss says, "is to save souls, to help kids get through adolescence."

Josh got through adolescence, alright.

Rest in peace, Josh.