Facie’s Ramblings

I have so many disjointed thoughts about guns in America right now. I am sad, sick, and angry about what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida last week. I hate that I have to talk to my high schooler about what to do if someone starts shooting in her school. I hate that when the hubs and I dropped her off at the movies last week, I was feeling uneasy as we told her to be aware of her surroundings and pay attention to where the exits are. I hate that my daughter has many unanswerable questions about how what happened actually happened. I hate that my 11-year-old nephew in TX is afraid to go to school because he is afraid of a shooting. I hate that nearly every day since that awful shooting, I have had to read about threats at various schools, instilling more fear in children. Over 5 years ago after the shooting in Newtown, I said that I still consider schools one of the safest places. Despite the fact that we seem to read about more and more school shootings, ...

Pittsburgh is not very pedestrian friendly. This, despite the following law: 3542. Right-of-way of pedestrians in crosswalks. (a) General rule. --When traffic-control signals are not in place or not in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection.   I cannot tell you how many times I have been at a crosswalk and have been ignored by cars zipping by. At one intersection near a park, there is actually a flashing light trumpeting that it is a state law that cars must yield for pedestrians. Still some drivers completely ignore that, and my daughter and I have have found ourselves waiting for long periods of time as well as coming close to being hit because we were not running across the street (I did not realize that part of the law was pedestrians had to sprint so as not to further inconvenience the drivers). Near ...

I have been absent from the blogging world for a little while. Last Tuesday I received a phone call asking if I was interested in coming in for an editing test for a temp-to-perm job (I had missed the email about this from the day before). The next day (Wednesday), I took the test, had a brief interview, and then found out that evening I did well enough to warrant a second interview the following week. The morning after (Thursday), I received another email asking if I could instead come in on Tuesday to start a project. Just a day later (Friday), I was asked if I could come in on Monday instead. So I did, and I spent several days this week working on the project, mostly in the office and some at home. I don't know what will come of this; it is fast-paced, and I have been away from the business world and a daily commute for three (!) years. And there is a lot to absorb. But whatever shall be, shall be. But back to my post title. On the news last night was a report of a man who u...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I traveled to TX for a few days because of my mother. As I also have mentioned in at least one other post, I do not like to travel in general. I am a homebody. Boring. Don't like change or to get out of my routine. As significant is that I hate to fly. My little brother does that for a living, and every time I have to get on a plane, it is not good. On the way to the airport, I was in tears. Not just a few runaway droplets, mind you, but full-on sobs punctuated by halted breaths.This was partly due to the exhaustion and stress of the previous two weeks and partly due to car trouble (I see a future post there). But more than those things, it was the thought of leaving my kid for more than three days, particularly when I had to get on a plane. Rationally, I know that flying is pretty safe, even post-9/11 (and maybe more so). But there is just something about a large object becoming airborne, literally leaving the ground. How is that...

As you may already know, I am pretty much a helicopter parent. There are a number of reasons for this, including that I had overprotective parents and that I am the parent of only one child. I am really trying to be less insane about my hovering, and reading the Free-Range Kids blog has helped. However, I have to comment, in true helicopter parenting style, on one of their/its recent blog posts. The abridged version of this post is that a free-range mom (FRM) wanted her 9 year old kid to walk home alone from his friend's house two blocks away, something the kid wanted to do as well. The helicopter mom (HM), however, refused to let said boy do so, and had a woman who was visiting her home (a woman FRM knew) drive FRM's kid home. FRM wants to know what to do/say next time as HM disregarded her wishes. Here are my thoughts, some of which I included in a comment on the FRK's site: We are free to raise our kids as we wish. The FRM can tell HM that she wants her kid to walk...

Last night I attended a local crime watch meeting. There was what I considered a decent turnout, probably about 75 people, though less than one of the first meetings, which had close to 200. Crime, for the most part, has gone down in my neck of the woods. Fortunately, the police caught a daytime burglar last year, which resulted in burglaries dropping from an average of about 31 per month to about 11 per month. What is interesting to me is how the burglar was caught. A woman came home to see a guy getting into a car in her driveway. She was fortunately able to provide a good description of the perp and the car to the 911 operator (more fortunately, the perp just wanted to get away and not hurt her). This information enabled the police to locate the car/perp, although the officer in pursuit at first did lose him. Fortunately again, another resident noticed this car speeding away, so he pulled over on the side of the road and flagged down the officer to let him know in which d...

I don't completely get the G20 protest thing. As I said in response to a friend's Facebook post, do the idiots who are breaking windows and overturning dumpsters think that any world leaders are going to take them seriously? Would you rather listen to someone who is calmly making intelligent arguments or someone else who is damaging property? And some of the protesters aren't doing themselves or anyone else, for that matter, any favors by protesting for no real reason. I read in the PG that some woman help up a sign that said, "I protest everything!" C'mon. Have a purpose. Get a life. And how about Greenpeace's stunt on the West End Bridge a few days ago? It was kind of cool looking and all, but their sign-hanging and people-dangling tied up traffic, which resulted in pollution. Not so smart, if you ask me. Kind of like half of Hollywood who cry about pollution, energy, and the depletion of the ozone layer and yet fly and drive all over the place and live ...

I spent the past two hours watching CNN and Fox News, preceded by a moment of prayer at church. I hope most of us take some time today to think about what happened eight years ago and how it changed our lives. I was so shaken by those events when they happened. For weeks, I spent hours a day watching CNN and Fox, constantly checking those same sites on the web, waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. I remember the Saturday or Sunday after, when planes were again allowed to fly. I was doing sit-ups at the gym and saw a plane fly overhead. I stopped cold. For months, I found myself watching planes, almost waiting for them to fly into buildings. I just reread my post from last year and, not surprisingly, I said some of these same things. They just stick with you. I continue to try to watch programs about 9/11. There was just one last week. I especially appreciate hearing about people who were directly affected, those who still mourn the loss of their loved ones. Watching video fro...

A week and a half ago, I showed up an hour early to pick up Jordan from her caregiver, E, and there she was on the front porch coloring. Alone. Over 10 minutes went by from the time I arrived until E came out; who knows how long Jordan was by herself before I arrived. Just in the time I was there, Jordan started shrieking when a bee flew near her, and the UPS guy came up to the porch to deliver a package while the dogs were barking. Yet this woman never came out to check on Jordan. Either E could not hear her or she was just ignoring her. I am pretty confident my kid would not leave the yard; I was more concerned about her getting hurt, or, God forbid, someone grabbing her. I was angry and upset, yet I said nothing. Some of you are probably surprised that I, someone who rarely fails to express my opinion or rant, would keep my mouth shut about this. But I have several reasons why I said nothing, justified and logical or not. Part of me was afraid if I asked E how long Jordan had been...